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Arts & sciences: the magazine of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina Wilmington

Arts & sciences: the magazine of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of North Carolina Wilmington

UNCW Arts & Sciences
Cover: Student intern Jessica Lowcher sorts through a
collection of 20-month-old oysters at UNC Wilmington’s
shellfish hatchery. The oysters have been in the water
near UNCW’s Center for Marine Science for the same
amount of time, and researchers are trying to determine
why they vary so much in size. - UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
Contents
2 The Story Behind the Story
Student recounts winning $10,000 internship
4 TIGR
Putting together a strategic team
6 Uncovering the Mysteries
Researchers are tackling a shark mystery
8 Tending Stock
Students helping the shellfish hatchery
12 Jeffrey Brudney
Re-imagining the university’s role with nonprofits
14 Exonerated
Inmates readjust to society after release from death row
16 Flexibility in Conflict
A new master’s program sets out to transform the world
18 eTEAL
UNCW’s plan to improve applied learning
21 The Real World
Students tackle the model United Nations
22 Literature-lovers
English students are grateful to Charles F. Green III
25 Faculty Accolades
26 Customizing the Lab
Rachel Kohman in the new Teaching Lab Building
28 Mapping from the Lab
Gregory Meyer works the new GIS lab
mesage from the dean
Arts & Sciences is published
annually by the Office of the Dean,
College of Arts & Sciences
UNC Wilmington
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5912
phone 910.962.3111
fax 910.962.3114
www.uncw.edu/cas
David P. Cordle, D.M.
dean
Kathleen C. Berkeley, Ph.D.
Carol Ann Pilgrim, Ph.D.
W. David Webster, Ph.D.
associate deans
Produced by
UNCW University Relations
creative director
Marybeth Bianchi
managing editor
Elizabeth K. Humphrey ’03M
photography
Jamie Moncrief
graphic design
Thomas Cone
copy editing
Andrea Weaver
Joy Ellis ’13
UNC Wilmington is committed to and
will provide equality of educational and
employment opportunity. Questions
regarding program access may be
directed to the Compliance Officer,
UNCW Chancellor’s Office,
910.962.3000, fax 910.962.3483.
8,000 copies of this public document
were printed at a cost of $7,590.00
or $0.95 a copy.
When Gary L. Miller was installed as UNCW’s chancellor last April, he
delivered a memorable address that set forth what he had come to believe
are the university’s enduring values: our commitment to the journey of
learning, our love of place, and our belief in the power of ideas and innovation. Chancellor
Miller’s vision of UNCW resonated for me at the time, because those three values
accurately captured the UNCW that I have come to know.
I was reminded of Chancellor Miller’s address as I reviewed the articles that fill this
issue of Arts and Sciences. These stories serve as reminders of just how deeply the
values he cited are imbedded in the culture of the College of Arts and Sciences.
For example, we might expect the journey of learning to be a central theme in the lives
of CAS faculty members. But they also spare no effort in bringing students along for
the ride. As the article on Heather Koopman’s research with basking sharks shows,
this journey is one that CAS faculty and students frequently take together.
The love of place? Well, UNCW is designated by mission as “the state’s coastal
university.” The issues and problems of the coastal region are reflected in our
curriculum and in the research and creative work of many of our faculty members. In
turn, CAS faculty and students use their scholarly work as a platform for engagement
with the region. The article about the shellfish hatchery illustrates this point in a
way that I think you’ll enjoy.
To see the power of ideas and innovation at work in CAS, look no further than the
articles on Kim Cook’s and Remonda Kleinberg’s work. These faculty innovators use
their disciplinary expertise to push the boundaries of knowledge and to create unique
curricula to meet the needs of students and society.
As proud as we are of our students, the CAS faculty members who guide them are
the real heroes. I marvel at their ability to integrate their research and creative
activity with great teaching and service. That integration, and the commitment that
makes it possible, define our university.
Best regards,
David P. Cordle, Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
Hunt leads a weekly planning meeting with her editors and reporters.
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
There’s nothing that can replace the high of knowing
you’ve done your best work. It must be the early
morning drive to the office, to see its tangible form
before everyone else. Or feeling the weight of your own toil
and sweat in your hands, you incarnate. It’s intoxicating to
feel that way.
And that’s how it felt to see my article “Sand, in sanity”
printed in UNC Wilmington’s student newspaper. It tells
the story of a group of Marines deployed to Afghanistan, the
mental struggle they experienced under the extreme pressure
of war, and the lengths to which they went to keep sane in
the desert. The story came to me after months of covering the
military beat for the paper and years of marriage to a combat
Marine. I wrote it to show a side of service members that very
few civilians see—a series of strikingly real human moments
and bizarre snapshots of bravery.
Writing it, I felt like the words were spilling from my fingertips.
Good stories are easy to tell. But reporting on the military has
its limitations. It is a journey that requires editorial discretion.
It is impossible to tell the whole story without compromising
the physical safety and job security of the people who trust
you with it. Seemingly innocent details could shatter a service
member’s military career and honor. As military reporters, our
first responsibility is to our sources.
So we edit, and edit some more. That story took a week to
whittle down.
After publication, “Sand, in sanity” climbed to the top of
our Most Read list and stayed there for two weeks. It had
been written for credit in a journalism class of the English
department, turned in as an afterthought to publication.
Another professor read the story and after some persistence,
convinced me to enter it for a national award.
There are few moments more rewarding in life than knowing
you’ve done your best work. Knowing it is considered the best
by a group of professionals you respect is one of them. It did
not matter that I came from a small journalism program. It did
not matter that the story was published in a small newspaper.
I was judged only by the quality of my work. There was no
resume that went with it, no transcript, no financial-aid letter.
My words and my name were the only requirements.
It made it an honor to win.
The Eric Breindel Collegiate Journalism Award is given
annually to an undergraduate reporter whose writing
demonstrates “…love of country and its democratic
institutions as well as the commitment to preserve the
freedoms that allow such institutions to flourish.” The award
is $10,000 and a paid internship, housing provided, at one
of three publications, all in New York City. This summer my
journey continues as an intern for The Wall Street Journal.
The prestige of that publication is understandably
intimidating, but I have a simple goal in mind to keep me
on track, a goal that I highly recommend to any intern. It is
to get that feeling again—that you have done your best work
and have given a piece of yourself to the world. It’s a high you
can’t come down from, one you ride until the next one or
until retirement, when you tell your grandkids that your best
was the best. It’s what we all live for—immortality in the
memories of others.
My mission is to live for
my legacy. What is yours?
By Angela N. Hunt ’13
Angela Hunt, editor in chief of The Seahawk student
newspaper at UNC Wilmington. Hunt, a communication
studies major, won the 2012 Eric Breindel Collegiate
Journalism Award.
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
2 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 3
“What this innovative initiative indicates is that research
into culture conducted in the humanities is far from
esoteric or irrelevant. Rather, it is recognized as
extremely valuable by those who are making critical
decisions about the future. It also highlights the
essential link between our research and what we do in
the classroom,” said Herb Berg, director of international
studies, about TIGR.
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
Team for Interdisciplinary
Global Research
T.I.G.R
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
Members of UNCW’s Team for Interdisciplinary Global
Research (TIGR) are (left to right) Jess Boersma, Lisa
Pollard, Herb Berg, Daniel Masters and Karl Ricanek.
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s Center for
Language, Regional Expertise and Culture issued
a call for academic partners for their Geostrategic
Intelligence Seminar Program. Within a few weeks
and in the middle of the summer, an innovative
and collaborative group of UNCW professors
responded. The group formed with faculty drawn
from foreign languages and literatures, history,
international studies, philosophy and religion, public
and international affairs and computer science
departments.
Not only was the Team for Interdisciplinary Global
Research (TIGR) fleet of foot, they were bold. The DIA
was looking for partners for geostrategic seminars
on Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle
East. Of these five, the UNCW group proposed three,
and received three: Europe, Latin America and the
Middle East.
As a result, in the next year and a half this UNCW
team will be developing the syllabi, inviting
scholars—including UNCW faculty, foreign and
domestic government officials and other experts—to
present graduate credit bearing, regional geostrategic
seminars for the intelligence community. For example,
the seminars include the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,
Iraq, Decolonization, Russia, the European Union, the
Balkans: Legacy of the 1990s and Kosovo, Venezuela
and Turkey. Obviously, seminars such as these will
draw on UNCW’s experts all across the humanities,
social sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
4 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 5
“We don’t even know how many there are,”
says Heather Koopman, associate professor
of biology at UNCW. “How long they live,
where they go. We don’t know where they reproduce. We
don’t know how long it takes them. We don’t know how
often they reproduce.” Even though these sharks can be
found in temperate oceans throughout the world, Koopman
adds, “Nobody knows what happens in a day in [their lives],
or a year.”
Koopman is working to learn as much as she can about the
basking shark. In addition to her laboratory research at
UNCW, where she studies the chemistry of lipids, Koopman
spends her summers working at the Grand Manan Whale
and Seabird Research Station, a Canadian facility located
off the coast of Maine in the Bay of Fundy. The bay’s 30-foot
tides, which are the biggest in the world, cause an uncommon
density of nutrients to stir up in its waters. As a result, this
Canadian inlet supports an unusually vibrant community of
marine life.
In 1991, when Koopman began working on Grand Manan
as an undergraduate intern, porpoises were the focus of her
research. Since then, she has collaborated with researchers
to investigate shearwaters, a seabird that migrates 40,000
kilometers every year. Recently, Koopman set her sights
on basking sharks. She and her team have already
yielded discovery.
In addition to aerial surveys of the bay and a photographic
program to identify sharks by their dorsal fins, the most
exciting tool in Koopman’s research is an electronic tracking
device. She and her partner, Andrew Westgate—a research
assistant professor in UNCW’s biology and marine biology
department—have learned to attach electronic tracking
devices temporarily to the sharks to monitor their
underwater activity.
These electronic tags come in two types. The first, which
Westgate designed for use in short-term monitoring, remains
on a shark for five days before detaching and floating to
the surface where it can be retrieved and its information
downloaded to a computer. While attached, these short-term
tags accumulate constant measures of depth, water temperature
and direction—a wealth of data unprecedented in the study of
basking sharks.
For more longitudinal monitoring, Koopman and Westgate
use a second type of device which is capable of remaining
attached to a shark for nearly 300 days. Due to their longer
deployments, these longitudinal tags can record migratory
patterns over much greater spans of time and space as
the sharks depart the Bay of Fundy throughout the year.
Between August 2011 and June 2012, Koopman and
Westgate’s team, which includes UNCW biology graduate
student Zach Siders ’11, deployed six longitudinal tags.
All six successfully gathered data for their intended duration
and electronically transmitted that data for analysis. In
August 2012, the team deployed four more. The data from
these will become available the summer of 2013.
Besides studying migratory patterns, Koopman and
Westgate hope to identify the species’ breeding grounds
and rearing practices by specifically tracking female
basking sharks. Their team also intends to make strides
toward responsible conservation.
Because basking sharks spend much of their time near the
surface, they are at risk of entanglement in fishing gear and
collision with boats. If Koopman and her colleagues can
elucidate patterns in the sharks’ movement within the Bay
of Fundy and abroad, they will be able to educate fishermen
and ship crews. Such a breakthrough would benefit boaters,
their equipment and the basking sharks themselves—which,
Koopman hopes, will soon no longer be such a mystery.
By Benjamin Rachlin ’15M
Studying the Dives
By Benjamin Rachlin ’15M
“I’m responsible for all the dive
analysis of the short-term tags,”
says Zach Siders ’11, the UNCW
graduate student on Heather Koopman’s
research team who is working toward his
master’s degree in biology. This means
downloading tag data onto a computer and
analyzing it for patterns in the
sharks’ behavior.
Because the short-term tags record
measurements at one-second intervals over
five days, there is a lot of data to analyze.
But a little knowledge goes a long way,
Siders explains. For example, he knows that
when basking sharks feed, they open their
mouths wide for plankton. Because their
mouths are so large, this behavior creates
enough drag to decrease their speed. When
Siders observes an uncharacteristically slow
period of swimming in the measurements—
and when this period corresponds with
a shark leveling out at a particular
depth, rather than continually diving and
resurfacing—he can form an educated
conclusion about the animal’s activity.
Siders says the most interesting part of
his experience is learning to do ecological
modeling, which provides a language to
communicate the phenomena he observes in
the wild. Connecting these phenomena with
the recorded data is challenging.
“I see a shark here,” he explains. “Why is
it here, and not there? That’s a really basic
question, but it’s incredibly complex to try
and figure out. That complexity is really what
drives my scientific interest.”
And the most fun part of his experience?
“Tagging a shark,” Siders says, laughing.
“You can’t really beat it. It’s an absolutely
exhilarating experience.”
Left: Male basking shark swimming just below the surface. Males are
identified by the paired claspers situated on the ventral surface, just
ahead of the last fin.
Background: Members of the shark team surveying the bay for sharks to
photograph and tag. Koopman is driving the boat, while Westgate and
colleague Sarah Wong (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) scan the
water for sharks.
Photo credits: GMWSRS
6 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 7
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
Travel to the southernmost part of the UNC
Wilmington campus and you will find the
university’s 12,000-square-foot shellfish hatchery.
Inside you’ll find the bustle of students and researchers on
a mission. Tanks of algae, used to feed the shellfish, glow
green and hum.
“The hatchery’s mission was envisioned to facilitate
and conduct research that would help North Carolina
manage its shellfish resources and help foster an
aquaculture industry,” says Ami Wilbur, associate
professor and director of the shellfish hatchery.
Wilbur’s graduate studies involved hatchery work, so she
feels as if she is returning to her roots. As she explains it,
shellfish hatcheries help propagate the early life stages of
shellfish. “Those parts of the lifecycle when they are tiny
and really vulnerable are difficult to study in the field, but
we can study them in the controlled setting like this.”
The university’s hatchery has 36 tanks for growing oyster
larvae. Some hatcheries, outside the U.S., are for-profit.
But in the U.S., there aren’t enough aquaculture farmers to
make enough money. The states, according to Wilbur, with
the most success in developing aquaculture are those that
have invested in a state-level and state-funded hatchery.
Virginia has operated one for more than a decade.
Student intern Cody Moorman takes samples of algae-rich water that
is fed to the millions of shellfish being grown at the hatchery.
“Virginia has been developing selected lines of oysters,
similar to having selected lines of chickens or cows.
They have helped their industry grow tremendously in
the last few years on the backs of these selected lines.
The hatchery lines allow the farmers to get 60 percent
of their crop to market. Whereas, before they had these
lines, it was more like 10 percent. It is a tremendous
improvement,” Wilbur says.
Wilbur often has to explain how a hatchery is similar to
a farm. North Carolina does not grow the same crops as
Virginia or Ohio.
The hatchery opened its doors in 2011 and spent its first
year running the operating systems through their paces
and making sure the systems would do what was expected.
Wilbur and her team also needed to determine if the
hatchery could grow oyster larvae, which it can. They
are now set on tackling a range of projects, such as a Sea
Grant-funded project to bring broodstock [the oysters used
for breeding] from four different North Carolina locations.
The hatchery is studying the oysters from Crab Hole, Cedar
Island, Hewlett’s Creek and Lockwood Folly River.
“We got oysters from all over, brought them in and
spawned them the spring of 2012 to produce groups of
offspring that we then are going to grow out in side-by-side
trials to see which ones do the best. We’re also bringing in
two lines from Virginia and using their oysters, which have
had 10 years of selective breeding,” Wilbur explains.
The research, from an aquaculture standpoint, is to
study traits that are of interest to the oyster market and
determining which traits should the hatchery’s lines have.
The question then becomes, is there a variation based on
genetics or environment?
“When we start to look at oysters from different
populations, some are prettier than others or look better.
But we don’t know if that variation is because they live
in Crab Hole, or is it that they are genetically Crab Hole
oysters,” Wilbur says. “We’ve removed the environment
from influencing—because they are all in the same
environment. And so we can see how much of a variation
that we saw in the parents that we brought in is just
because they were grown in different areas. We’ll be able
to take apart the environmental and genetic component of
the variations that we have. And that will help us better
understand: are there any differences between Crab Hole
oysters and Cedar Island oysters? It also provides us with
the information of what amount of the variation we can
selective breed for a pretty oyster. Or a faster growing
oyster. A disease-tolerant oyster.”
Student involvement is integral to the hatchery’s success.
Tending St ck
“We do know when we collect oysters from
different locations, there are subtle differences.” Amy Finelli, shellfish hatchery technician, and director Ami Wilbur
(right) stand at a pair of tanks that house newly grown scallops and
oysters at UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
8 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 9
“They do help us run the facility: keep things clean, count and
measure oysters. They collect data on the oysters, on water
quality, on our algae system. They are very much involved
in the operation of the facility. We wouldn’t be where we are
without the students.”
The experience teaches them the application of classroom
knowledge and its usefulness.
“I think the real advantage is you get to see science work, and
you get to have a product. They see the oysters get bigger.”
Wilbur mentions that some students from earlier in her career
now work in aquaculture. The hands-on experience is useful
when working in a hatchery or, as some former students did,
setting up their own hatchery.
Wilbur admits that she enjoys the intersection of book
learning and the practical application.
“The students see that applying science often leads to new
questions. I can’t tell you how many times a student will pull
something out of our cultures or nets and ask, ‘What’s this?’”
In the near future, you may hear that question at an oyster
roast and the answer will be: “An oyster that was spawned at
UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.”
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
Upper Right: Student intern Jessica Lowcher uses a computer to
document oyster development, as Ami Wilbur, director, UNCW Shellfish
Hatchery, works at the microscope. The oysters have been in the water
near UNCW’s Center for Marine Science for the same amount of time,
and researchers are trying to determine why they vary so much in size.
Lower: Intern Shelby Spade builds shellfish growing cages at
UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.
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UNCW College of Arts & Sciences
10 Arts & Sciences
It’s no secret that UNC Wilmington
students, staff and faculty volunteer
in the community. Hiring Jeffrey
Brudney, an award-winning
nonprofit academic, is another signal to
the community that UNCW is serious
about reaching out.
“I am honored to be here and to serve
as the inaugural holder of the Betty and
Dan Cameron Family Distinguished
Professorship of Innovation in the
Nonprofit Sector,” Brudney says. “The
things that I am interested in doing here,
and I believe that the institution wants
me to do, as well as the Cameron family,
are to raise our scholarship and research
and attention to the nonprofit sector.”
Since Brudney’s start in fall 2012, he has
been in the classroom and on a mission
to engage area nonprofits with plans
to bring the university closer to the
community. At the same time, Brudney
ranks 10th in research productivity
among scholars worldwide in his field
and is the editor-in-chief of the leading
academic journal in his field, the
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Brudney hopes to “raise the stature,
recognition and prestige of the nonprofit
sector at the university as a place for
serious attention, not only in North
Carolina, but also internationally.”
He’s enthusiastic about the challenge.
“It’s exciting because I have the privilege
of deciding on, or helping to lay the
direction for, where we’re going to go.
That’s one of the chief attractions here.”
College of Arts and Sciences students
and faculty will be thoroughly involved,
aiming for “greater integration of the
practical needs of the community with
what we’re doing here at UNCW,”
Brudney explains.
Even though Brudney’s professorship
resides in the Department of Public and
International Affairs, he envisions his
work as cross-disciplinary.
“Nonprofit studies, as opposed to many
fields, is inherently an interdisciplinary
field taking advantage of study in
sociology, anthropology, psychology,
economics, business, political science,
social work, public administration and so
forth. The more heterogeneous, varied
and diverse the preparation is, the better
the experience for the student.”
In Brudney’s view, it is this crossover
that gives students such rich experiences.
“That’s what gets the students excited
about the nonprofit sector—the crossing
and blurring of disciplines and greater
emphasis on making a difference and
taking advantage of whatever academic
or practical background you have.”
Brudney is developing a summer
class to prepare students for service
in nonprofit organizations, entitled
“Nonprofit Leadership Experience.”
Students will complete projects in
nonprofit organizations designed by
the organizations themselves with
his assistance.“My own passion is the
merging, or the integration, of learning
and application. When we do something
in class, how is it that the student can
use that knowledge afterward? Creating
usable knowledge is the goal of the
course.”
In the summer class, Brudney’s goal
is to give more practical applications
to the students. “We will offer immersion
and meaningful programs that provide
skills to students to work in the nonprofit
sector that are transferable to the other
sectors.”
Students will work with nonprofits
on concrete projects such as writing
a business plan, creating a website or
developing a campaign for volunteer
recruitment. “It’s not volunteering for
the organizations, it’s having a student
complete a project on her or his own
for that organization that has tangible,
demonstrated value to both the student
and the agency.”
Once these connections are made,
Brudney predicts “10 percent of these
students ultimately will be employed by
these organizations.”
In 2008, Brudney was one of two
academic researchers invited to the
White House by President George W.
Bush to discuss volunteering. In 2010,
he received an invitation to participate
in the United Nations Volunteers
Programme Technical Advisory Board
on The State of the World’s Volunteerism
Report, which is the first study of its kind.
“I learned that academic theory alone
isn’t going to feed people in Darfur,
and it’s not going to help people to get
water out of a desert area or preserve the
environment. So, unless you’re interested
in spending a lot of time talking with
other people around the world, most of
them not academics, you should not get
involved in these kinds of activities,”
Brudney explains.
To Brudney, it is important that students
are exposed to practical experiences,
which will help them reach into a
community and make a difference.
2010-11 academic year
Jeffrey Brudney is the inaugural holder
of the Betty and Dan Cameron Family
Distinguished Professorship of Innovation
in the Nonprofit Sector. He is also the editor
in chief of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector
Quarterly, the premier journal in nonprofit
sector studies.
Re-imagining
Nonprofits, Academics and Community
UNCW students, faculty and staff
714 partnerships
178,555 hours of service
@ $21.79 an hour*
$3,890,713
UNCW Community Partnerships Impact Report
*nationally estimated value of volunteer time, according to Independent Sector
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
12 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 13
In 2004, Alan Gell walked out of a
Bertie County courtroom a free man.
After languishing nearly five years on death row for a
murder he did not commit, a new jury overturned
his original conviction. But despite the sense of
vindication that accompanied his freedom, Gell felt uneasy
and scared.
He was released into a foreign world where toilets flushed
automatically “and scared the crap out of you,” he said. On
the outside, he had no access to health care or social services.
And with an erroneous murder conviction on his record, it
felt impossible to find a job.
Gell is among 18 exonerated death row inmates whose post-release
odysseys form the subject of a recently released book
titled, Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community
and Identity, co-authored by professors at University of North
Carolina campuses in Wilmington and Greensboro.
The authors, Kimberly J. Cook, chair of UNCW’s sociology
and criminology department, and Saundra D. Westervelt,
associate professor of sociology at UNCG, highlight what
critics call shortcomings in how states provide assistance to
exonerees. Namely, their findings underscore an emerging
focal point among scholars, journalists and advocates: that
innocent individuals freed from prison typically receive less
help than the government provides guilty ones after they are
released. Parolees often get access to job training, substance
abuse services and perhaps even temporary housing.
“Exonerees,” Cook said in an interview, “get nothing.”
The authors conceived the idea for their research when they
first met during a conference in 2000 but actually embarked
on the project in 2003, traveling around the country talking
to those who literally escaped death. One of their participants,
a former inmate in Florida, once came within hours of being
executed.
“The whole idea was, what is life like for individuals who
basically had their lives robbed from them?” Westervelt said.
“What is that life like when they get back? Up until that point,
the few pictures of life that we had were from journalists who
focused mainly on the case—they might show the exoneration
when people are really happy. But I knew enough about parolees
that life (for exonerees) couldn’t be that great.”
Around the country, only about 10 programs exist to help
exonerees re-adjust to life in the free world, but they are mainly
nonprofit organizations rather than state or federal agencies.
“Since the justice system perpetrated this wrongful conviction,
the justice system should participate in correcting it and
assisting exonerees when they are released from prison,”
Cook said.
Their work has already caught the attention of policymakers
in North Carolina, a state that has not executed a person since
2006. Cook and Westervelt have recommended to the N.C.
Governor’s Crime Commission, a consortium of legislators and
law enforcement officials, automatically expunging exonerees’
records upon release, providing immediate physical and mental
healthcare, and softening eligibility for state compensation.
Cook and Westervelt say only a small proportion of exonerees
receive compensation. Only 27 states and the District of
Columbia have compensation laws. North Carolina boasts
one of the most generous, awarding $50,000 for each year of
wrongful incarceration. But the process often takes years. And
to qualify, exonerees must obtain a governor’s pardon – a task
that often proves elusive. As a result, only less than 23 percent
of them win compensation through the law, Westervelt said.
Gell believes he should not have to ask the state to correct a
wrong that it perpetrated. He instead filed a lawsuit against
prosecutors and investigators and in 2009, settled for $3.9
million, according to the book.
Today, Gell’s life has assumed a degree of normalcy. He is in a
healthy relationship and has kids. But the stigma of being “that
guy” who once served time on death row still sticks to him.
“You never really get over the whole deal,” he said.
All proceeds from sale of Life After Death Row will be donated to
Witness to Innocence and Centurion Ministries, two nonprofits that
help wrongfully incarcerated individuals.
Exonera ed
You never
really
get over
the whole deal.
death row inmates readjust to society after release
By Brian Freskos
Reprinted with permission from the StarNews.
Kimberly Cook, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology
and Criminology at UNCW, with the book she co-authored,
Life After Death Row.
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
14 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 15
This spring UNCW graduates its
first class of master’s students from
the newly created multidisciplinary
graduate program in conflict and
management resolution (CMR) in the
Department of Public and International
Affairs.
One key to the CMR program is its
multidisciplinary framework. Students
can choose to study conflict in the
domestic or an international arena,
allowing majors from different areas
of study to find connections to the
coursework.
“It’s new, but there is a huge demand
for this kind of program,” says Remonda
Kleinberg, the program’s director and a
professor in the Department of Public
and International Affairs.
The framework of this program was
developed from the experiences of
Kleinberg with Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University’s Unit for
Study and Resolution of Conflict, where
she has been a visiting professor. The
unit utilizes a semi-distant, two-week
teaching block of face-to-face learning
in the beginning of the semester.
Kleinberg embraced this South African
style of teaching and became passionate
about bringing it to North Carolina.
In fall 2010, a certificate for CMR was
integrated into the UNCW Master
of Arts in Liberal Studies. During the
planning process, Kleinberg connected
with the state, military, National Guard
and others. For those students unable
to commute, students join via video
teleconference.
“We have a huge cross-section of
students. Some are fresh out of
undergrad, and others have had careers
of 20 years,” Kleinberg says.
The first two weeks of classes are
scheduled and then students move to in-class
sessions for two evenings per week
or all-day weekend workshops. Following
the first two weeks, students and faculty
decide when they are going to meet
face-to-face throughout the semester.
Kleinberg explains, “There is a great
deal of flexibility without letting go of
students.”
Tackling tactics of third-party mediation,
the program is designed to equip
students with the proper professional
skills and knowledge to manage conflict
in nearly any situation.
“It is a skill set and it teaches you how
to look at conflicts differently and
manage them, rather than making
them worse,” says Erin York ’11, ’13M,
Kleinberg’s graduate teaching assistant
and a candidate for her CMR master’s
in 2013. York studied political science
as an undergraduate and became
interested enough in the program that
she completed her certification. Her
coursework was then applied toward her
master’s.
“It’s been really helpful,” York says of the
CMR course work. “It can be applied to
a lot of different fields.”
This multidisciplinary element
has attracted an array of professors
from diverse academic departments:
communication studies and social work
and professionals with experiences at
the state department and with strategic
communications. York mentioned that a
former student held an internship at the
Department of Homeland Security.
As she moves toward graduation, York,
who hopes to get a job as an intelligence
analyst, is aware that the CMR degree
will better qualify her for available
jobs—at the CIA, “civilian military” or
the Department of State.
York says she has really enjoyed the
program. “It has been challenging.
It is a lot of work and reading in the
political science discipline. There is a
lot of writing and a lot of research. It is
rigorous, but not over complicated. It’s
not that it is hard to learn.”
Besides the different class structure,
prospective students might appreciate
that the GRE standardized test is not
required. Basing admissions on merit,
up to 15 students are admitted to the
program annually.
In a constantly changing world, the
CMR program emphasizes a goal of
transformation.
“Around the world, we are drawing
down militarily, but not in what we are
doing in those countries,” Kleinberg
says. “This program has the possibility
for a huge reach.”
Students interested in a myriad of
disciplines can find something in the
program that will enhance their personal
and professional transformations.
Flexibility in
Conflict “…it is rigorous, but
not over complicated.”
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M,
Jacqueline Daniele ’13 and Joy Ellis ’13
ThinkStock/iStockphoto
Kleinberg embraced the South African style of
teaching conflict and management resolution
and became passionate about bringing it to
North Carolina.
16 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 17
UNCW intern Shelby Abbott (right) works with New Hanover High
School student Dominique Hall on a writing assignment during an
English literature class.
What do sorting and recycling trash
and planting gardens have in common?
They are all part of an eTEAL initiative
to improve applied learning at UNCW.
Applied learning takes place all over campus:
directed independent study (DIS), internships,
course-embedded projects that include hands-on
experiences, community-based projects, honors
projects, study abroad and undergraduate research. “Applied
learning can work for any major,” explains Kim Cook, QEP
coordinator, professor and chair of the Department of
Sociology and Criminology.
For these reasons, applied learning seemed like the ideal topic
to focus on for the QEP.
“Applied learning is already such a big thing here at UNCW,”
said Laura Harrison, a graduate teaching assistant to the QEP.
“So the main goal of the QEP isn’t to make more opportunities
for applied learning, but to improve on the opportunities that
are already here.”
A greater emphasis on the intention behind the experience and
on the initiation of critical reflection throughout and following
the experience are the main ways that eTEAL differs from
previous applied learning experiences.
“It sounds really simple, but research shows that there are
huge improvements just by doing these little things,” Harrison
said, “The intention of knowing what you’re doing and being
involved in the learning process—being an active learner—is
the point of applied learning. The second part of that is
reflection—all of our classes, regardless of how often they do
reflection in class, have a reflection piece at the end. A lot of
this is just improving written and oral skills, but also critical
thinking…. It’s all about planting the seeds and connecting
the dots.”
Junior Whitley Fulp agrees that the faculty-student
relationships fostered through eTEAL are invaluable.
Following a suggestion from her professor, Fulp participated
in an eTEAL DIS shadowing registered dietitians and
volunteering with Expanded Food and Nutrition Programs.
Her professor then fostered her reflection process.
“Because my applied learning experience helped me make
connections and determine my career paths, I am quite an
advocate,” she said.
After much deliberation, the QEP task force targeted the
faculty as its initiation point.
“Through faculty development, we’ll achieve student
development. The better your professors are, the more they
have to give their students. So that’s been a big focus,”
Harrison said.
With faculty involvement in mind, eTEAL includes a three-part
approach. The first of these is the Applied Learning
Summer Institute that features experts in the field. Faculty
eTEAL is UNCW’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a primary
requirement for the university’s 2013 decennial reaccreditation
through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
During the past three years, UNC Wilmington professors,
administrators, staff and students have worked diligently to
develop the QEP—a “long-term, university-wide project meant to
improve, enrich and enhance the student learning experience.”
The QEP, titled “eTEAL: experiencing Transformative Education
through Applied Learning,” revolves around a topic that runs
deep through UNCW’s curriculum.
will explore ways to enhance their teaching strategies to
enrich their practices.
The second part of the approach is developing Applied
Learning and Teaching Communities with goals to “discuss,
develop and share ideas related to pedagogy and critical
reflection.”
“The faculty meet every week and they have workshops for
all sorts of topics,” Harrison said.
UNCW/Katherine Freshwater
By Amelia Beamer ’13
18 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 19
The final part of the model—eTEAL-supported initiatives—is
funding that is available to support applied learning initiatives.
During the 2012–13 school year, eTEAL’s year of “preliminary
implementation,” 24 participants from across campus were
awarded these initiatives. Currently, there are 10 eTEAL
initiative classes taking place.
“The eTEAL-supported initiatives can provide funding for
supplies and materials needed for improving the teaching and
the learning opportunity for students, as well as providing faculty
with salary stipends if they are taking the time to revamp the
class in this way,” said Cook.
One such professor is Rebecca Warfield. She is spearheading
a new type of English 290 class, “White Vinegar and Chicken
Coops: The Narratives of Homesteading and Self-Sustainability.”
Warfield’s class features a variety of memoirs about
homesteaders—people who have left an urban environment
to live in the middle of nowhere—and urban farmers—city
dwellers who cultivate farms and gardens geared towards
sustainability. Warfield’s students are required to take part in
service learning—in this case, four hours a week work at the
campus recycling center.
“In order to pass the class, they have to do this. They have to go
to the back of campus and actually get into the trash and sort
The Real World of Model
United Nations
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M with assistance from Meg O’Brien ’12 and Paige Tan
UNCW political science students
represented all these political entities
at the University of Pennsylvania
Model United Nations Conference in
November 2012. Model United Nations
(UN), an educational simulation, is part
public speaking exercise, part indoctrination
into parliamentary procedures and negotiation
techniques, and part learning to see the
international community through someone
else’s eyes. Many participants in Model UN
are interested in joining the real United
Nations organization when they graduate, but
for others, it is a worthy educational exercise.
The students debate global policies, try to find
consensus on issues and draft resolutions to
address world problems.
The UNCW students were enthusiastic about
their experiences: “it’s like a society,” “it’s
really cool to see people get together and be
so passionate and working so hard,” “there
was such goodwill,” and “powerful people are
scared of losing their power.”
The countries represented at the university-level
Model UN—based on a mixture of
contemporary, historical, and fictional—are
guided by a mock secretariat, also comprised
of students. The entire conference of
1,500 students was run by University of
Pennsylvania undergraduate students and
requires a year to prepare.
Paige Tan, associated professor and assistant
chair of the Department of Public and
International Affairs, prepares her students
each year for their trip to the Model UN
conference. Students learn about the United
Nations as well as concrete skills like public
speaking, negotiation, and resolution writing.
The trip to Philadelphia received support
from the College of Arts and Sciences’
Applied Learning Fund. The University
encourages applied learning experiences
during which students get out of the
classroom and experience their disciplines
as practitioners in the field might. In
Model United Nations, practice in the field
involves acting out high-level diplomacy.
In the months preceding the University
of Pennsylvania conference, the UNCW
students researched, practiced, discussed,
and immersed themselves (as much as they
could) into the world of the Model UN.
One of the students, Jennifer Otero, says
they “ran through countless mock UN
assembly procedures, researched assigned
topics and even created potential resolutions
for those issues.”
Almost everyone agreed that the ability to
confidently speak publicly strongly correlated
with success at the conference. Alexander
Miller says, “If you were bold enough to
speak…everyone would gravitate toward you.”
Another important skill to have in the Model
UN environment is adaptability. According
to Otero, the preparation exercises that
they did before the conference were helpful,
but “the ability to feel out different and
unique environments, and adapt to those
environments, was vital for success.”
Laura Gregory thinks one of the most
important lessons she gained from the Model
UN conference was to “be open to change
and compromise.” The other students agreed
because compromise and adaptability go hand
in hand. If one is willing to compromise,
the ability to adapt to unfamiliar or difficult
circumstances will come with ease.
(At the fall conference, incidentally, the
South did finally win the War Between
the States.)
Argentina!
The Philippines!
The Confederacy!
ThinkStock/iStockphoto
through it, and they have to go around campus and collect all of
the recyclables. That’s a small project right now. We’re working
on maybe making that a larger project for the university,”
Warfield said.
For their off-campus volunteer projects, the students were
given the choice to harvest herbs at Shelton Herb Farm, help
Tidal Creek Food Cooperative with research, work with local
kindergarteners to build gardens through the Food Corp or work
with Progressive Gardens to prepare, seed and harvest gardens.
In addition to the positive feedback that she has gotten from her
students, Warfield also emphasized how much she is growing as a
professor through the course.
“The cool thing about eTEAL is that it isn’t just student-focused.
It helps the instructors enhance their pedagogy,” she said, “I
really think that my pedagogy is changing because of this. Even
though I’ve always believed in applied learning, it wasn’t until I
actually did it, that I saw that—wow, this is really working.”
For the next five years, eTEAL will continue to assist professors
interested in applied learning. Funding will also be available for
non-credit-bearing learning activities—such as students who
wish to travel for academic conferences or for resident assistants
who want to create hands-on opportunities for students living
on campus.
As part of a five-week study abroad
program, Valerie Rider, a UNCW
lecturer in Spanish, hosted a group
of UNCW students. The students, including
Katherine Freshwater, lived in Viña del Mar,
Chile, and attended Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Valparaiso, a college in
Valparaiso, Chile. While there, the students
attended classes five days a week, and
experienced lectures by Rider and local
Chilean professors. The UNCW students
lived with host families who spoke varying
amounts of English. Freshwater’s hosts
spoke no English, which forced her
to embrace the culture and language.
Web extra: View a video Freshwater
produced as part of her applied learning
reflection. http://vimeo.com/53169810
(left to right; top row): Andrew Lloyd, Brock McKoy, Melanie Wolosyn,
Ciera Ames, Andi Black, Cierra Caulder, Diana Marren, Evan Jackson, Cody Scrufari
(left to right; bottom row): Melissa Lane, Tessa Mork, Tess Frierson, Luis Horne,
Katherine Freshwater, Chad Lane, Carynne Spaulding, James Hoot
20 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 21
22 Arts & Sciences
Left: Karis Moyers at the Lennon Wall in Prague, Czech Republic.
Below: Elena Fleggas standing in front of a phone booth in London,
England.
Following Page: Amber Lee in front of Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the
highest peak in North America.
Charles F. Green III has established two programs for
English majors and everyone who shares his love of
literature at UNCW—the Buckner Lecture Series
and the Wentworth Fellowship Program.
The Buckner Lecture Series was endowed in October 1997
in honor of Green’s dear friend, Katherine Buckner—a
fellow lover of literature. They “share a love and interest in
literature and wish both to foster a greater understanding of
literature and to encourage the literary writers of the future.”
Over the past 15 years the UNCW English Department
Buckner Committee has brought some of the most
distinguished authors to campus. Most recently, best-selling
author Ann Hood (Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, The
Knitting Circle) came to share her love of books and how
she uses writing as a coping mechanism.
Former Buckner Committee Chair Mark Boren said,
“We want to bring someone who wants to talk to students.
Someone who wants to share what they’ve discovered.”
Ann Hood did not disappoint. She captivated her audience
and spoke to them as if they were chatting over coffee.
Students who have studied and read her novels had the
opportunity to interact with her by asking questions and
receiving advice from someone who has made a career in
writing. “I couldn’t believe that someone who was so good
at evoking emotion on a page could have that same
intensity speaking. I was very touched. It was really
inspiring,” said Alex Nevill ’14.
“This,” said Boren, “is what the Buckner Lecture Series is
all about. It gives students access to these people, which
is a tremendous opportunity.”
Another opportunity, the Wentworth Fellowship Program,
was established by Green in June 2000 in honor of
Michael D. Wentworth, an award-winning professor
of English.
This program gives students the opportunity to travel in
America or abroad to sites connected with their favorite
piece of literature or literary movement. Green provides
$23,000 each year to help cover travel and lodging expenses
for the Wentworth Fellows.
So, what is sought for in a Wentworth Fellow? Committee
member Katie Peel said, “I look for students to have a passion
for a specific text or author. I look for that spark.” She
definitely saw “that spark” in Karis Moyers, Elena Fleggas and
Amber Lee, who are three recent Wentworth Fellows.
at UNC Wilmington Literature-Lovers by Meg O’Brien ’12
Green provides $23,000 each year to
help cover the costs of travel and
lodging for the Wentworth Fellows.
Karis Moyers, ’13
Moyers’ European adventure began during her freshman year when she
was “introduced to Milan Kundera’s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of
Being, by mere chance.” So what lead Moyers to Kundera’s novel? The
answer: music.
“During my freshman year at UNCW, I started listening to all kinds of
music. One of the bands I discovered, Bright Eyes, has a song titled
Tomas and Tereza. I thought the song was strange, but the lyrics were
beautiful. One day I saw someone quote The Unbearable Lightness of
Being and mentioned the two names from the song as characters in this
novel. I looked the book up and ordered it at the bookstore.”
Moyers loved the book and applied to become a Wentworth Fellow to
study how communism affected the Czechs in Prague.
It was “exciting…to see how the city showcases its
scars from the communist oppression,” says Moyers.
“I travelled all over the city to see each memorial for the victims of
communism, but the Museum of Communism gave me a deeper
understanding of why the Czechs are so scarred from the occupation
and revolution. Finding the museum was really hard. I had to ask
around, and I passed by the place three or four times. It was situated
behind a McDonalds and under a casino, which I found quite funny.
McDonalds is such a symbol for capitalism, and the same can be said
for a generic casino, so it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of
the past and present. It made me realize that this is how Prague is;
the modern aspects of the city seem merely to be layered on top of
the old parts.
“Seeing the inspiration behind the novels I’ve read reminded me exactly
why I wanted to be an English literature major. Literature is very relevant
to everyday life,” Moyers explained.
Elena Fleggas, ’12
During Fleggas’ senior year, she traveled to London, England, to
study Victorian childhood. Fleggas has “always had a strong interest
in childhood studies.” However, she did not discover her passion for
Victorian literature until the fall semester of her senior year.
Her fascination “with
children in Victorian
literature” brought her
to London, where she
was able to see and
experience what she
had only previously
read about. She
went to Lewis Caroll’s
Children’s Library and
the Victoria and Albert
Museum of Childhood,
both of which brought
her readings to life.
“London is an
absolutely beautiful
city that I had always
wanted to visit, and I
would not have been
able to without the
financial help from
this fellowship. I am very thankful I was given the
opportunity to continue my research in London.”
Arts & Sciences 23
UNCW Donor, Charles F. Green III
By Joy Ellis ’13
Charles F. Green III has started multiple funding
programs at UNCW, graciously donating
to enhance the learning of students and the
professional development among faculty members.
The explanation of his donations is “to share his passion
for learning with others.” Two of the programs he started
are the Wentworth Fellowship and the Bucker Lecture
Series, both of which are familiar to those on the
UNCW campus.
Wentworth Fellowship:
• Established in 2001
• Enables students to go on journeys associated with a specific
literary text, author or movement so they can explore the
geographic region and legendary landmarks/sites related to
the work
• After the trip is completed, students must write an essay that
reviews the trip and describes how it helped them learn about
a specific text, author or movement
• Students must also create a poster after the trip, illustrating their
activities and what they learned
• All of the Wentworth Fellow posters are put on display during a
public presentation in Randall Library
Buckner Lecture Series:
• Established to bring notable writers, speakers and artists to UNCW
• In honor of Green’s friend, Katherine K. Buckner
• Some of the previous speakers include Joyce Carol Oates,
Ken Burns, Catherine Lutz and Ann Hood
• Free and open to the public
Amber Lee, ’10
Douglas Fine’s Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man inspired Amber
Lee. So much so that during the spring break of Lee’s senior year
she—and her mother—traveled to Alaska. Lee’s fascination with
Alaska started with another book she read during her junior year, Jon
Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Alaska “was so unlike North Carolina and any
land I had explored, and I wanted to know all about it,” said Lee.
The below-zero cold of Alaska did not impress Amber’s mother, but for
Lee it “was more than [she] dreamed” it could be. “I had a hard time
convincing myself to come back to North Carolina for those two months
to finish my degree,” she said.
She did not have to miss it for too long. Two weeks after graduation,
Lee moved to Anchorage. Her mother’s reaction? “Not thrilled,” Lee
said. But her mother has visited and found that Alaskan summers can
be sunny and warm.
Lee’s Wentworth trip allowed her “to travel Alaska and visit the places
that Doug Fine wrote about—the places that connected him to the
community and made him want to stay. I was able to experience the
same hospitality and feel connected to a place in a way I never had
before. The trip
solidified the idea
that I would live
in Alaska after
graduation and
become part of the
community, too.”
Lee said, “The trip
changed my life…
and without the
kindness of Charles
Green, my life would
probably be very
different now. If I
had not been able
to travel to Alaska
due to the Wentworth
Fellowship, I most
likely would not have moved here after graduation. I would like to thank
him for all the opportunities he has granted UNCW students over
the years.”
The chance to travel across the world to study literature is a dream
for all literature and writing students. Due to Green’s generosity,
these—and other—students have benefited from the opportunities
his fellowships he provides.
faculty acolades
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
24 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 25
Nina de Gramont, creative writing lecturer, sold two young
adult novels to Simon & Schuster: Meet Me at the River (2014)
and The Boy I Love (2013).
Karen Bender, creative writing lecturer, sold her short
story collection, Refund, to Counterpoint Press. An excerpt
from Bender’s new novel, A Town of Empty Rooms, appeared
in the Printers Row Journal section of the Chicago Tribune in
December 2012.
Rebecca Lee, associate professor of creative writing,
anticipates her book, Bobcat and Other Stories (Hamish
Hamilton Canada, 2012), to be published in the U.S. this year.
Malena Mörling, associate professor of creative writing,
published a book of poetry translations, On Foot I Wandered
Through the Solar Systems (Marick Press, 2012).
Michael White, professor of creative writing, has two
companion books—Vermeer in Hell, winner of the 2012 Lexi
Rudnitsky Editor’s Prize, and Travels in Vermeer—published by
Persea Books.
“Unflinching Leader,” Philip Gerard’s portrait of Gov.
Zebulon Baird Vance was part of the July 2011 issue of
Our State magazine that won a national Folio Award for
best single issue.
The short story “The Right Imaginary Person” by
Robert Seigel, associate professor of creative writing,
will appear in Tin House 54.
Music department chair Frank Bongiorno’s DVD Master
Class, “Basic Reed Maintenance for the Saxophonist,” was
published in Saxophone Journal (July/August 2012).
The Unknown Horowitz: The Man and His Music, by Sherill
Martin, professor of music history, with Richard Boursey of
Yale University, will be published by the Indiana University
Press. Steven Errante, professor of music; Barry Salwen,
associate professor of music; and Joe Kishton,
professor of psychology, contributed essays to the book.
Kimberly Cook, sociology and criminology department
chair, and Saundra Westervelt of UNC Greensboro, published
Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity
(Rutgers University Press). They presented their findings to
the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission and were
invited to discuss it on a WUNC radio program.
Vibeke Olson, associate professor of art history, has a
new publication titled “Woman Why Weepest Thou? Mary
Magdalene, The Virgin Mary and the Transformative Power
of Holy Tears in Late Medieval Devotional Painting.”
David La Vere, associate professor of history, had his
seventh book published: The Tuscarora War: Settlers and the
Fight for the Carolina Colonies.
Michael Seidman, professor of history, announced the
publication of the Spanish translation of his 2011 novel,
The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the
Spanish Civil War.
Glen A. Harris, associate professor of history, published his
first book, Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict: Intellectual Struggles
Between Blacks and Jews at Mid Century (Lexington Books).
The Ryoanji Duo—Frank Bongiorno, music department
chair, and Robert Nathanson, professor of music—were
selected to perform the premiere of David Kechley’s Points of
Departure at the 16th World Saxophone Congress in Scotland
in July 2012. The duo also recorded Kechley’s Sea of Stones with
the Filharmonia Sudecka in Walbrzych, Poland, in May 2012.
Daniel Johnson, associate professor of music, gave
collaborative presentations at the 30th World Conference
of the International Society for Music Education in
Thessaloniki, Greece.
Diane Levy, professor of sociology, returned from
her Fulbright exchange in the Ukraine and delivered a
presentation titled “A Fulbright Semester in Ukraine:
Borscht and Bureaucracy.”
Julie-Ann Scott, assistant professor of communication
studies, received the 2012 Janet Mason Ellerby Women’s and
Gender Studies Scholarly Award.
Barbara Waxman, professor of English, received the
2013 Janet Mason Ellerby Women’s and Gender Studies
Scholarly Award.
Lisa Pollard, associate professor of history, won the
Distinguished Engaged Scholarship/Public Service Award.
Andi Steele, assistant professor of studio art, exhibited
“Mountains” at Cape Fear Community College’s Hanover
Gallery. Her large-scale steel sculpture “Vaulted” was part of
a group exhibition for ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ann Conner, studio art chair and professor of studio art,
exhibited 14 new woodcuts including large format prints in
the Solo Exhibition “New Woodcut Prints by Ann Conner,”
at Mahler Fine Art in Raleigh. “Bel-Air” was printed at The
Grenfell Press in New York City and recently published.
Shannon Silva, assistant professor of film studies, and
Donna King, associate professor of sociology, co-produced a
documentary on consumer culture aimed at young girls titled
It’s a Girl Thing: Tween Queens and the Commodification of Girlhood.
In January, it was screened in UNCW’s Lumina Theatre
followed by a panel discussion highlighting the interesting
progression of the “tween queen” market.
In addition to its 80,000-square-feet of classrooms,
specialized laboratories and office spaces, the 2012
opening of the Teaching Lab Building to UNCW’s
campus has had another primary benefit—it opened doors to
hiring new faculty members, including Rachel Kohman.
Kohman, a neuroscientist conducting research as part of a
three-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, joined
UNCW’s psychology department this school year. It’s a move
that could not have happened prior to the construction of the
new building.
“I do teach a brain and behavior class here, but most of my
time is geared toward research,” she said, “I definitely wouldn’t
have been able to come here and do my work if this building
didn’t exist. The space was a very big part of my decision, and
essentially one of the primary factors for me coming here. I
don’t think that the other building could have housed and run
a lot of equipment that I use.”
Kohman’s background, as described in her own words for the
psychology department’s website, “is in the interdisciplinary
field of psychoneuroimmunology, studying the intersection of
neuroscience and immunology.”
The long-term goal of her research “is to characterize the
functional consequences of increased inflammation within
the brain, identify the neural mechanisms of these changes
and identify interventions to attenuate the aversive effects of
neuroinflammation.”
In laymen’s terms, she explained that when we get sick—and
especially in cases of the chronically ill—our immune systems
have a “chronic immune response going on,” which triggers
inflammation in the brain. This reaction may disrupt learning
and memory processes.
“There are a lot of changes in the immune system that
happen with normal aging, and so you tend to get this
chronic, low-grade inflammation of the brain, just from
normal aging. So then, when you add on top of that, an
immune challenge—say, an older person gets ill—they tend
to be more susceptible to being sick, and once they do get
sick, they tend to not recover as quickly,” Kohman said.
The main way that Kohman studies these trends is through
her ongoing research with mice.
“We know that from our work, and a lot of other labs, that
if you challenge an older [mouse], they show more cognitive
deficits that last a lot longer. And we’re trying to figure out,
along with many other labs that are working on this problem,
how we can slow this down, if there is a way to reverse that,”
she said.
Kohman looks at exercise, to see if that may reduce the brain
inflammation, as well as making the brain learn better.
“And we’re seeing that it does,” Kohman said about the
exercise. “Basically, you see improvements of cognitive
function from exercise, and then it’s about applying that
to humans.”
The addition of the new building allowed Kohman to
customize her lab and research experiences in ways that
simply wouldn’t have been possible in the past. Her lab
was built with bio safety cabinets and fume hoods—safety
necessities in her field of work—and it is spacious enough
to store the equipment that she brought with her.
“The biggest thing I’ve brought is a real-time thermo cycler,”
she said. “Basically, it’s used to look at gene expression—so we
can measure changes in messenger RNA levels of any
type of protein or messenger RNA that exists in the body
or the brain.”
She also has other equipment, such as centrifuges and
cyrostats, which may have taxed electrical systems in the
Social and Behavioral Sciences Building.
“They’ve had to do a little bit of work with the electrical
system for my equipment because I have a minus-eighty degree
freezer,” Kohman explained. The freezer uses a lot of energy,
but a generator helps ensure that power will stay constant. “So
that’s a nice feature of the building, too.”
The Teaching Lab was designed with collaboration and
technological support in mind. “It’s set up in a way that all of
the labs are on one floor, and then there’s a few common rooms
up there, but everyone exits through the same hallways, so
we can interact a little more than we would if we were spread
apart in different areas of the building,” she said.
Kohman also expressed that the genuine good nature of the
UNCW community also played a major role in her decision
to become a Seahawk.
“It really seemed, when I interviewed here, that people were
very genuine, and that they got along, and they were happy
to come to work,” she said, “and you want to be around
that—I’m going to be here for a long time, and I’m going to
be around these people every day, so I want to work with a
group of people that like each other, and who are collegial,
and essentially want to see you succeed. And I really got that
feeling—that this was a family, in that sense.”
teaching LAB profiles
Rachel Kohman:
Customizing the Lab
By Amelia Beamer ’13
…the interdisciplinary field
of psychoneuroimmunology
26 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 27
Before joining the environmental studies department at
UNCW, Gregory Meyer worked as an environmental
specialist and geographic information systems (GIS)
programmer for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.
He developed intricate maps depicting the different types of
wetlands that make up North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties,
and then worked with a team to use this data to propose
concrete suggestions to officials of how to protect these
environments.
With more than 20 years of experience with the technology
and a passion for coastal environments, Meyer seemed an ideal
candidate to join the Department of Environmental Studies
faculty, and Wilmington seemed the ideal location for his
research. The Teaching Laboratory Building, with its state-of-
the-art GIS lab that virtually tripled the space previously
available, ultimately sealed the deal on Meyer’s decision.
“I did my Ph.D. in coastal resources, so research on the
coast—you can’t beat Wilmington,” Meyer explained. “I was
really excited about going to this brand-new place and having
brand-new hardware and software. It helps that we have a new
lab and have budding interest from many students. We now
have the tools.”
To the untrained eye, watching Meyer work on an aerial
map of North Carolina with the lab’s special GIS software
programs looks similar to a complicated, high-level computer
game. He zooms in and out, applying different “layers”—one
adds all of the bodies of water in North Carolina, one labels
the boundaries of each county, and another applies a rainbow
of colors, each representing a different type of wetland
environment. With the click of his mouse, Meyer can choose
from thousands of such layers and can also create his own,
resulting in custom maps that can display virtually any aspect
of the environment that he wishes to analyze.
“It looks kind of difficult to understand, but when you start
learning it and doing it, it’s easy,” he said, “GIS is kind of time
consuming, but overall, when you see what you can get out of
it, it’s so worth it.”
Most of Meyer’s time is spent teaching GIS classes, and
his curriculum is heavily geared towards applied learning.
Mostly, students create and analyze trends and patterns on
their own maps and learn to discern what those trends and
patterns actually mean with regards to ongoing and future
environmental changes.
“Most of the students are from North Carolina, and they are
looking for jobs in the local agencies or in the government,
so I want to teach them how to analyze the wetlands and land
use, and about local fisheries—about population and cities—all
things they will use when they get into the field,” Meyer said.
With the amount of land use dedicated to cities and
agriculture expanding rapidly, much of Meyer’s own current
research deals with how this is affecting our environmental
landscapes—and what governments and city planners should
(and shouldn’t) be doing to ensure sustainability.
“I’m studying landscape trends, in a way, in the coastal area,
and also I’m trying to branch into the human population—our
cities are growing. How is it impacting our landscapes?”
One example that Meyer gave to illustrate this inquiry is the
growth of Charleston, S.C. from 1970 to 1995. During those
years, “the population there doubled, but the amount
of physical space covered by the city grew three times.”
Meyer is working to determine why the city’s physical space
changed that way.
“Using aerial photography, it’s very easy to see where the city
was in 2000 and where it was in 2010,” Meyer said, “Using
biology and environmental filters, you can see what possible
impact it’s going to have on the environment so that you can
propose some concrete actions. We can say, ‘maybe you should
go here and not there, because there it would impact the
stream, or some sensitive habitat.’”
Originally from Rwanda, Meyer earned his master’s degree
from NC State University and his Ph.D. from East Carolina
University.
“North Carolina is a good place to be an environmentalist—to
do this kind of work,” he said. “We have many progressive
policies, but we also have many problems—or many potential
problems. The good thing is, the major issues are all regulated
by federal agencies. We all follow the same rules. The issue is,
how we apply those locally.”
In addition to the state-of-the-art Teaching Laboratory
facilities and the ideal coastal location, Meyer said that he was
also drawn to UNCW by the research and camaraderie of his
now-colleagues in the environmental studies department.
“There are so many others who are doing things that interest
me,” he said. “I can learn from them. If somebody has been
doing something longer than you have, more than likely, you
are going to learn from them.”
teaching LAB profiles
Gregory Meyer:
Mapping from the Lab
By Amelia Beamer ’13
…his curriculum is heavily
geared towards applied learning
28 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 29
A Department of Theatre production (2012~13 season)
A Midsumer
Night’s Dream
DEPARTMENT of Theatre
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
P A I D
Wilmington, NC
Permit No. 444
College of Arts & Sciences
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5912
UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
pinterest.com/caspinterest uncwcas.tumblr.com

UNCW Arts & Sciences
Cover: Student intern Jessica Lowcher sorts through a
collection of 20-month-old oysters at UNC Wilmington’s
shellfish hatchery. The oysters have been in the water
near UNCW’s Center for Marine Science for the same
amount of time, and researchers are trying to determine
why they vary so much in size. - UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
Contents
2 The Story Behind the Story
Student recounts winning $10,000 internship
4 TIGR
Putting together a strategic team
6 Uncovering the Mysteries
Researchers are tackling a shark mystery
8 Tending Stock
Students helping the shellfish hatchery
12 Jeffrey Brudney
Re-imagining the university’s role with nonprofits
14 Exonerated
Inmates readjust to society after release from death row
16 Flexibility in Conflict
A new master’s program sets out to transform the world
18 eTEAL
UNCW’s plan to improve applied learning
21 The Real World
Students tackle the model United Nations
22 Literature-lovers
English students are grateful to Charles F. Green III
25 Faculty Accolades
26 Customizing the Lab
Rachel Kohman in the new Teaching Lab Building
28 Mapping from the Lab
Gregory Meyer works the new GIS lab
mesage from the dean
Arts & Sciences is published
annually by the Office of the Dean,
College of Arts & Sciences
UNC Wilmington
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5912
phone 910.962.3111
fax 910.962.3114
www.uncw.edu/cas
David P. Cordle, D.M.
dean
Kathleen C. Berkeley, Ph.D.
Carol Ann Pilgrim, Ph.D.
W. David Webster, Ph.D.
associate deans
Produced by
UNCW University Relations
creative director
Marybeth Bianchi
managing editor
Elizabeth K. Humphrey ’03M
photography
Jamie Moncrief
graphic design
Thomas Cone
copy editing
Andrea Weaver
Joy Ellis ’13
UNC Wilmington is committed to and
will provide equality of educational and
employment opportunity. Questions
regarding program access may be
directed to the Compliance Officer,
UNCW Chancellor’s Office,
910.962.3000, fax 910.962.3483.
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or $0.95 a copy.
When Gary L. Miller was installed as UNCW’s chancellor last April, he
delivered a memorable address that set forth what he had come to believe
are the university’s enduring values: our commitment to the journey of
learning, our love of place, and our belief in the power of ideas and innovation. Chancellor
Miller’s vision of UNCW resonated for me at the time, because those three values
accurately captured the UNCW that I have come to know.
I was reminded of Chancellor Miller’s address as I reviewed the articles that fill this
issue of Arts and Sciences. These stories serve as reminders of just how deeply the
values he cited are imbedded in the culture of the College of Arts and Sciences.
For example, we might expect the journey of learning to be a central theme in the lives
of CAS faculty members. But they also spare no effort in bringing students along for
the ride. As the article on Heather Koopman’s research with basking sharks shows,
this journey is one that CAS faculty and students frequently take together.
The love of place? Well, UNCW is designated by mission as “the state’s coastal
university.” The issues and problems of the coastal region are reflected in our
curriculum and in the research and creative work of many of our faculty members. In
turn, CAS faculty and students use their scholarly work as a platform for engagement
with the region. The article about the shellfish hatchery illustrates this point in a
way that I think you’ll enjoy.
To see the power of ideas and innovation at work in CAS, look no further than the
articles on Kim Cook’s and Remonda Kleinberg’s work. These faculty innovators use
their disciplinary expertise to push the boundaries of knowledge and to create unique
curricula to meet the needs of students and society.
As proud as we are of our students, the CAS faculty members who guide them are
the real heroes. I marvel at their ability to integrate their research and creative
activity with great teaching and service. That integration, and the commitment that
makes it possible, define our university.
Best regards,
David P. Cordle, Dean
College of Arts and Sciences
Hunt leads a weekly planning meeting with her editors and reporters.
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
There’s nothing that can replace the high of knowing
you’ve done your best work. It must be the early
morning drive to the office, to see its tangible form
before everyone else. Or feeling the weight of your own toil
and sweat in your hands, you incarnate. It’s intoxicating to
feel that way.
And that’s how it felt to see my article “Sand, in sanity”
printed in UNC Wilmington’s student newspaper. It tells
the story of a group of Marines deployed to Afghanistan, the
mental struggle they experienced under the extreme pressure
of war, and the lengths to which they went to keep sane in
the desert. The story came to me after months of covering the
military beat for the paper and years of marriage to a combat
Marine. I wrote it to show a side of service members that very
few civilians see—a series of strikingly real human moments
and bizarre snapshots of bravery.
Writing it, I felt like the words were spilling from my fingertips.
Good stories are easy to tell. But reporting on the military has
its limitations. It is a journey that requires editorial discretion.
It is impossible to tell the whole story without compromising
the physical safety and job security of the people who trust
you with it. Seemingly innocent details could shatter a service
member’s military career and honor. As military reporters, our
first responsibility is to our sources.
So we edit, and edit some more. That story took a week to
whittle down.
After publication, “Sand, in sanity” climbed to the top of
our Most Read list and stayed there for two weeks. It had
been written for credit in a journalism class of the English
department, turned in as an afterthought to publication.
Another professor read the story and after some persistence,
convinced me to enter it for a national award.
There are few moments more rewarding in life than knowing
you’ve done your best work. Knowing it is considered the best
by a group of professionals you respect is one of them. It did
not matter that I came from a small journalism program. It did
not matter that the story was published in a small newspaper.
I was judged only by the quality of my work. There was no
resume that went with it, no transcript, no financial-aid letter.
My words and my name were the only requirements.
It made it an honor to win.
The Eric Breindel Collegiate Journalism Award is given
annually to an undergraduate reporter whose writing
demonstrates “…love of country and its democratic
institutions as well as the commitment to preserve the
freedoms that allow such institutions to flourish.” The award
is $10,000 and a paid internship, housing provided, at one
of three publications, all in New York City. This summer my
journey continues as an intern for The Wall Street Journal.
The prestige of that publication is understandably
intimidating, but I have a simple goal in mind to keep me
on track, a goal that I highly recommend to any intern. It is
to get that feeling again—that you have done your best work
and have given a piece of yourself to the world. It’s a high you
can’t come down from, one you ride until the next one or
until retirement, when you tell your grandkids that your best
was the best. It’s what we all live for—immortality in the
memories of others.
My mission is to live for
my legacy. What is yours?
By Angela N. Hunt ’13
Angela Hunt, editor in chief of The Seahawk student
newspaper at UNC Wilmington. Hunt, a communication
studies major, won the 2012 Eric Breindel Collegiate
Journalism Award.
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
2 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 3
“What this innovative initiative indicates is that research
into culture conducted in the humanities is far from
esoteric or irrelevant. Rather, it is recognized as
extremely valuable by those who are making critical
decisions about the future. It also highlights the
essential link between our research and what we do in
the classroom,” said Herb Berg, director of international
studies, about TIGR.
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
Team for Interdisciplinary
Global Research
T.I.G.R
UNCW/Jamie Moncrief
Members of UNCW’s Team for Interdisciplinary Global
Research (TIGR) are (left to right) Jess Boersma, Lisa
Pollard, Herb Berg, Daniel Masters and Karl Ricanek.
The Defense Intelligence Agency’s Center for
Language, Regional Expertise and Culture issued
a call for academic partners for their Geostrategic
Intelligence Seminar Program. Within a few weeks
and in the middle of the summer, an innovative
and collaborative group of UNCW professors
responded. The group formed with faculty drawn
from foreign languages and literatures, history,
international studies, philosophy and religion, public
and international affairs and computer science
departments.
Not only was the Team for Interdisciplinary Global
Research (TIGR) fleet of foot, they were bold. The DIA
was looking for partners for geostrategic seminars
on Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle
East. Of these five, the UNCW group proposed three,
and received three: Europe, Latin America and the
Middle East.
As a result, in the next year and a half this UNCW
team will be developing the syllabi, inviting
scholars—including UNCW faculty, foreign and
domestic government officials and other experts—to
present graduate credit bearing, regional geostrategic
seminars for the intelligence community. For example,
the seminars include the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt,
Iraq, Decolonization, Russia, the European Union, the
Balkans: Legacy of the 1990s and Kosovo, Venezuela
and Turkey. Obviously, seminars such as these will
draw on UNCW’s experts all across the humanities,
social sciences and the College of Arts and Sciences.
4 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 5
“We don’t even know how many there are,”
says Heather Koopman, associate professor
of biology at UNCW. “How long they live,
where they go. We don’t know where they reproduce. We
don’t know how long it takes them. We don’t know how
often they reproduce.” Even though these sharks can be
found in temperate oceans throughout the world, Koopman
adds, “Nobody knows what happens in a day in [their lives],
or a year.”
Koopman is working to learn as much as she can about the
basking shark. In addition to her laboratory research at
UNCW, where she studies the chemistry of lipids, Koopman
spends her summers working at the Grand Manan Whale
and Seabird Research Station, a Canadian facility located
off the coast of Maine in the Bay of Fundy. The bay’s 30-foot
tides, which are the biggest in the world, cause an uncommon
density of nutrients to stir up in its waters. As a result, this
Canadian inlet supports an unusually vibrant community of
marine life.
In 1991, when Koopman began working on Grand Manan
as an undergraduate intern, porpoises were the focus of her
research. Since then, she has collaborated with researchers
to investigate shearwaters, a seabird that migrates 40,000
kilometers every year. Recently, Koopman set her sights
on basking sharks. She and her team have already
yielded discovery.
In addition to aerial surveys of the bay and a photographic
program to identify sharks by their dorsal fins, the most
exciting tool in Koopman’s research is an electronic tracking
device. She and her partner, Andrew Westgate—a research
assistant professor in UNCW’s biology and marine biology
department—have learned to attach electronic tracking
devices temporarily to the sharks to monitor their
underwater activity.
These electronic tags come in two types. The first, which
Westgate designed for use in short-term monitoring, remains
on a shark for five days before detaching and floating to
the surface where it can be retrieved and its information
downloaded to a computer. While attached, these short-term
tags accumulate constant measures of depth, water temperature
and direction—a wealth of data unprecedented in the study of
basking sharks.
For more longitudinal monitoring, Koopman and Westgate
use a second type of device which is capable of remaining
attached to a shark for nearly 300 days. Due to their longer
deployments, these longitudinal tags can record migratory
patterns over much greater spans of time and space as
the sharks depart the Bay of Fundy throughout the year.
Between August 2011 and June 2012, Koopman and
Westgate’s team, which includes UNCW biology graduate
student Zach Siders ’11, deployed six longitudinal tags.
All six successfully gathered data for their intended duration
and electronically transmitted that data for analysis. In
August 2012, the team deployed four more. The data from
these will become available the summer of 2013.
Besides studying migratory patterns, Koopman and
Westgate hope to identify the species’ breeding grounds
and rearing practices by specifically tracking female
basking sharks. Their team also intends to make strides
toward responsible conservation.
Because basking sharks spend much of their time near the
surface, they are at risk of entanglement in fishing gear and
collision with boats. If Koopman and her colleagues can
elucidate patterns in the sharks’ movement within the Bay
of Fundy and abroad, they will be able to educate fishermen
and ship crews. Such a breakthrough would benefit boaters,
their equipment and the basking sharks themselves—which,
Koopman hopes, will soon no longer be such a mystery.
By Benjamin Rachlin ’15M
Studying the Dives
By Benjamin Rachlin ’15M
“I’m responsible for all the dive
analysis of the short-term tags,”
says Zach Siders ’11, the UNCW
graduate student on Heather Koopman’s
research team who is working toward his
master’s degree in biology. This means
downloading tag data onto a computer and
analyzing it for patterns in the
sharks’ behavior.
Because the short-term tags record
measurements at one-second intervals over
five days, there is a lot of data to analyze.
But a little knowledge goes a long way,
Siders explains. For example, he knows that
when basking sharks feed, they open their
mouths wide for plankton. Because their
mouths are so large, this behavior creates
enough drag to decrease their speed. When
Siders observes an uncharacteristically slow
period of swimming in the measurements—
and when this period corresponds with
a shark leveling out at a particular
depth, rather than continually diving and
resurfacing—he can form an educated
conclusion about the animal’s activity.
Siders says the most interesting part of
his experience is learning to do ecological
modeling, which provides a language to
communicate the phenomena he observes in
the wild. Connecting these phenomena with
the recorded data is challenging.
“I see a shark here,” he explains. “Why is
it here, and not there? That’s a really basic
question, but it’s incredibly complex to try
and figure out. That complexity is really what
drives my scientific interest.”
And the most fun part of his experience?
“Tagging a shark,” Siders says, laughing.
“You can’t really beat it. It’s an absolutely
exhilarating experience.”
Left: Male basking shark swimming just below the surface. Males are
identified by the paired claspers situated on the ventral surface, just
ahead of the last fin.
Background: Members of the shark team surveying the bay for sharks to
photograph and tag. Koopman is driving the boat, while Westgate and
colleague Sarah Wong (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada) scan the
water for sharks.
Photo credits: GMWSRS
6 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 7
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
Travel to the southernmost part of the UNC
Wilmington campus and you will find the
university’s 12,000-square-foot shellfish hatchery.
Inside you’ll find the bustle of students and researchers on
a mission. Tanks of algae, used to feed the shellfish, glow
green and hum.
“The hatchery’s mission was envisioned to facilitate
and conduct research that would help North Carolina
manage its shellfish resources and help foster an
aquaculture industry,” says Ami Wilbur, associate
professor and director of the shellfish hatchery.
Wilbur’s graduate studies involved hatchery work, so she
feels as if she is returning to her roots. As she explains it,
shellfish hatcheries help propagate the early life stages of
shellfish. “Those parts of the lifecycle when they are tiny
and really vulnerable are difficult to study in the field, but
we can study them in the controlled setting like this.”
The university’s hatchery has 36 tanks for growing oyster
larvae. Some hatcheries, outside the U.S., are for-profit.
But in the U.S., there aren’t enough aquaculture farmers to
make enough money. The states, according to Wilbur, with
the most success in developing aquaculture are those that
have invested in a state-level and state-funded hatchery.
Virginia has operated one for more than a decade.
Student intern Cody Moorman takes samples of algae-rich water that
is fed to the millions of shellfish being grown at the hatchery.
“Virginia has been developing selected lines of oysters,
similar to having selected lines of chickens or cows.
They have helped their industry grow tremendously in
the last few years on the backs of these selected lines.
The hatchery lines allow the farmers to get 60 percent
of their crop to market. Whereas, before they had these
lines, it was more like 10 percent. It is a tremendous
improvement,” Wilbur says.
Wilbur often has to explain how a hatchery is similar to
a farm. North Carolina does not grow the same crops as
Virginia or Ohio.
The hatchery opened its doors in 2011 and spent its first
year running the operating systems through their paces
and making sure the systems would do what was expected.
Wilbur and her team also needed to determine if the
hatchery could grow oyster larvae, which it can. They
are now set on tackling a range of projects, such as a Sea
Grant-funded project to bring broodstock [the oysters used
for breeding] from four different North Carolina locations.
The hatchery is studying the oysters from Crab Hole, Cedar
Island, Hewlett’s Creek and Lockwood Folly River.
“We got oysters from all over, brought them in and
spawned them the spring of 2012 to produce groups of
offspring that we then are going to grow out in side-by-side
trials to see which ones do the best. We’re also bringing in
two lines from Virginia and using their oysters, which have
had 10 years of selective breeding,” Wilbur explains.
The research, from an aquaculture standpoint, is to
study traits that are of interest to the oyster market and
determining which traits should the hatchery’s lines have.
The question then becomes, is there a variation based on
genetics or environment?
“When we start to look at oysters from different
populations, some are prettier than others or look better.
But we don’t know if that variation is because they live
in Crab Hole, or is it that they are genetically Crab Hole
oysters,” Wilbur says. “We’ve removed the environment
from influencing—because they are all in the same
environment. And so we can see how much of a variation
that we saw in the parents that we brought in is just
because they were grown in different areas. We’ll be able
to take apart the environmental and genetic component of
the variations that we have. And that will help us better
understand: are there any differences between Crab Hole
oysters and Cedar Island oysters? It also provides us with
the information of what amount of the variation we can
selective breed for a pretty oyster. Or a faster growing
oyster. A disease-tolerant oyster.”
Student involvement is integral to the hatchery’s success.
Tending St ck
“We do know when we collect oysters from
different locations, there are subtle differences.” Amy Finelli, shellfish hatchery technician, and director Ami Wilbur
(right) stand at a pair of tanks that house newly grown scallops and
oysters at UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
8 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 9
“They do help us run the facility: keep things clean, count and
measure oysters. They collect data on the oysters, on water
quality, on our algae system. They are very much involved
in the operation of the facility. We wouldn’t be where we are
without the students.”
The experience teaches them the application of classroom
knowledge and its usefulness.
“I think the real advantage is you get to see science work, and
you get to have a product. They see the oysters get bigger.”
Wilbur mentions that some students from earlier in her career
now work in aquaculture. The hands-on experience is useful
when working in a hatchery or, as some former students did,
setting up their own hatchery.
Wilbur admits that she enjoys the intersection of book
learning and the practical application.
“The students see that applying science often leads to new
questions. I can’t tell you how many times a student will pull
something out of our cultures or nets and ask, ‘What’s this?’”
In the near future, you may hear that question at an oyster
roast and the answer will be: “An oyster that was spawned at
UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.”
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
Upper Right: Student intern Jessica Lowcher uses a computer to
document oyster development, as Ami Wilbur, director, UNCW Shellfish
Hatchery, works at the microscope. The oysters have been in the water
near UNCW’s Center for Marine Science for the same amount of time,
and researchers are trying to determine why they vary so much in size.
Lower: Intern Shelby Spade builds shellfish growing cages at
UNCW’s Shellfish Hatchery.
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UNCW College of Arts & Sciences
10 Arts & Sciences
It’s no secret that UNC Wilmington
students, staff and faculty volunteer
in the community. Hiring Jeffrey
Brudney, an award-winning
nonprofit academic, is another signal to
the community that UNCW is serious
about reaching out.
“I am honored to be here and to serve
as the inaugural holder of the Betty and
Dan Cameron Family Distinguished
Professorship of Innovation in the
Nonprofit Sector,” Brudney says. “The
things that I am interested in doing here,
and I believe that the institution wants
me to do, as well as the Cameron family,
are to raise our scholarship and research
and attention to the nonprofit sector.”
Since Brudney’s start in fall 2012, he has
been in the classroom and on a mission
to engage area nonprofits with plans
to bring the university closer to the
community. At the same time, Brudney
ranks 10th in research productivity
among scholars worldwide in his field
and is the editor-in-chief of the leading
academic journal in his field, the
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly.
Brudney hopes to “raise the stature,
recognition and prestige of the nonprofit
sector at the university as a place for
serious attention, not only in North
Carolina, but also internationally.”
He’s enthusiastic about the challenge.
“It’s exciting because I have the privilege
of deciding on, or helping to lay the
direction for, where we’re going to go.
That’s one of the chief attractions here.”
College of Arts and Sciences students
and faculty will be thoroughly involved,
aiming for “greater integration of the
practical needs of the community with
what we’re doing here at UNCW,”
Brudney explains.
Even though Brudney’s professorship
resides in the Department of Public and
International Affairs, he envisions his
work as cross-disciplinary.
“Nonprofit studies, as opposed to many
fields, is inherently an interdisciplinary
field taking advantage of study in
sociology, anthropology, psychology,
economics, business, political science,
social work, public administration and so
forth. The more heterogeneous, varied
and diverse the preparation is, the better
the experience for the student.”
In Brudney’s view, it is this crossover
that gives students such rich experiences.
“That’s what gets the students excited
about the nonprofit sector—the crossing
and blurring of disciplines and greater
emphasis on making a difference and
taking advantage of whatever academic
or practical background you have.”
Brudney is developing a summer
class to prepare students for service
in nonprofit organizations, entitled
“Nonprofit Leadership Experience.”
Students will complete projects in
nonprofit organizations designed by
the organizations themselves with
his assistance.“My own passion is the
merging, or the integration, of learning
and application. When we do something
in class, how is it that the student can
use that knowledge afterward? Creating
usable knowledge is the goal of the
course.”
In the summer class, Brudney’s goal
is to give more practical applications
to the students. “We will offer immersion
and meaningful programs that provide
skills to students to work in the nonprofit
sector that are transferable to the other
sectors.”
Students will work with nonprofits
on concrete projects such as writing
a business plan, creating a website or
developing a campaign for volunteer
recruitment. “It’s not volunteering for
the organizations, it’s having a student
complete a project on her or his own
for that organization that has tangible,
demonstrated value to both the student
and the agency.”
Once these connections are made,
Brudney predicts “10 percent of these
students ultimately will be employed by
these organizations.”
In 2008, Brudney was one of two
academic researchers invited to the
White House by President George W.
Bush to discuss volunteering. In 2010,
he received an invitation to participate
in the United Nations Volunteers
Programme Technical Advisory Board
on The State of the World’s Volunteerism
Report, which is the first study of its kind.
“I learned that academic theory alone
isn’t going to feed people in Darfur,
and it’s not going to help people to get
water out of a desert area or preserve the
environment. So, unless you’re interested
in spending a lot of time talking with
other people around the world, most of
them not academics, you should not get
involved in these kinds of activities,”
Brudney explains.
To Brudney, it is important that students
are exposed to practical experiences,
which will help them reach into a
community and make a difference.
2010-11 academic year
Jeffrey Brudney is the inaugural holder
of the Betty and Dan Cameron Family
Distinguished Professorship of Innovation
in the Nonprofit Sector. He is also the editor
in chief of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector
Quarterly, the premier journal in nonprofit
sector studies.
Re-imagining
Nonprofits, Academics and Community
UNCW students, faculty and staff
714 partnerships
178,555 hours of service
@ $21.79 an hour*
$3,890,713
UNCW Community Partnerships Impact Report
*nationally estimated value of volunteer time, according to Independent Sector
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
12 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 13
In 2004, Alan Gell walked out of a
Bertie County courtroom a free man.
After languishing nearly five years on death row for a
murder he did not commit, a new jury overturned
his original conviction. But despite the sense of
vindication that accompanied his freedom, Gell felt uneasy
and scared.
He was released into a foreign world where toilets flushed
automatically “and scared the crap out of you,” he said. On
the outside, he had no access to health care or social services.
And with an erroneous murder conviction on his record, it
felt impossible to find a job.
Gell is among 18 exonerated death row inmates whose post-release
odysseys form the subject of a recently released book
titled, Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community
and Identity, co-authored by professors at University of North
Carolina campuses in Wilmington and Greensboro.
The authors, Kimberly J. Cook, chair of UNCW’s sociology
and criminology department, and Saundra D. Westervelt,
associate professor of sociology at UNCG, highlight what
critics call shortcomings in how states provide assistance to
exonerees. Namely, their findings underscore an emerging
focal point among scholars, journalists and advocates: that
innocent individuals freed from prison typically receive less
help than the government provides guilty ones after they are
released. Parolees often get access to job training, substance
abuse services and perhaps even temporary housing.
“Exonerees,” Cook said in an interview, “get nothing.”
The authors conceived the idea for their research when they
first met during a conference in 2000 but actually embarked
on the project in 2003, traveling around the country talking
to those who literally escaped death. One of their participants,
a former inmate in Florida, once came within hours of being
executed.
“The whole idea was, what is life like for individuals who
basically had their lives robbed from them?” Westervelt said.
“What is that life like when they get back? Up until that point,
the few pictures of life that we had were from journalists who
focused mainly on the case—they might show the exoneration
when people are really happy. But I knew enough about parolees
that life (for exonerees) couldn’t be that great.”
Around the country, only about 10 programs exist to help
exonerees re-adjust to life in the free world, but they are mainly
nonprofit organizations rather than state or federal agencies.
“Since the justice system perpetrated this wrongful conviction,
the justice system should participate in correcting it and
assisting exonerees when they are released from prison,”
Cook said.
Their work has already caught the attention of policymakers
in North Carolina, a state that has not executed a person since
2006. Cook and Westervelt have recommended to the N.C.
Governor’s Crime Commission, a consortium of legislators and
law enforcement officials, automatically expunging exonerees’
records upon release, providing immediate physical and mental
healthcare, and softening eligibility for state compensation.
Cook and Westervelt say only a small proportion of exonerees
receive compensation. Only 27 states and the District of
Columbia have compensation laws. North Carolina boasts
one of the most generous, awarding $50,000 for each year of
wrongful incarceration. But the process often takes years. And
to qualify, exonerees must obtain a governor’s pardon – a task
that often proves elusive. As a result, only less than 23 percent
of them win compensation through the law, Westervelt said.
Gell believes he should not have to ask the state to correct a
wrong that it perpetrated. He instead filed a lawsuit against
prosecutors and investigators and in 2009, settled for $3.9
million, according to the book.
Today, Gell’s life has assumed a degree of normalcy. He is in a
healthy relationship and has kids. But the stigma of being “that
guy” who once served time on death row still sticks to him.
“You never really get over the whole deal,” he said.
All proceeds from sale of Life After Death Row will be donated to
Witness to Innocence and Centurion Ministries, two nonprofits that
help wrongfully incarcerated individuals.
Exonera ed
You never
really
get over
the whole deal.
death row inmates readjust to society after release
By Brian Freskos
Reprinted with permission from the StarNews.
Kimberly Cook, professor and chair of the Department of Sociology
and Criminology at UNCW, with the book she co-authored,
Life After Death Row.
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
14 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 15
This spring UNCW graduates its
first class of master’s students from
the newly created multidisciplinary
graduate program in conflict and
management resolution (CMR) in the
Department of Public and International
Affairs.
One key to the CMR program is its
multidisciplinary framework. Students
can choose to study conflict in the
domestic or an international arena,
allowing majors from different areas
of study to find connections to the
coursework.
“It’s new, but there is a huge demand
for this kind of program,” says Remonda
Kleinberg, the program’s director and a
professor in the Department of Public
and International Affairs.
The framework of this program was
developed from the experiences of
Kleinberg with Nelson Mandela
Metropolitan University’s Unit for
Study and Resolution of Conflict, where
she has been a visiting professor. The
unit utilizes a semi-distant, two-week
teaching block of face-to-face learning
in the beginning of the semester.
Kleinberg embraced this South African
style of teaching and became passionate
about bringing it to North Carolina.
In fall 2010, a certificate for CMR was
integrated into the UNCW Master
of Arts in Liberal Studies. During the
planning process, Kleinberg connected
with the state, military, National Guard
and others. For those students unable
to commute, students join via video
teleconference.
“We have a huge cross-section of
students. Some are fresh out of
undergrad, and others have had careers
of 20 years,” Kleinberg says.
The first two weeks of classes are
scheduled and then students move to in-class
sessions for two evenings per week
or all-day weekend workshops. Following
the first two weeks, students and faculty
decide when they are going to meet
face-to-face throughout the semester.
Kleinberg explains, “There is a great
deal of flexibility without letting go of
students.”
Tackling tactics of third-party mediation,
the program is designed to equip
students with the proper professional
skills and knowledge to manage conflict
in nearly any situation.
“It is a skill set and it teaches you how
to look at conflicts differently and
manage them, rather than making
them worse,” says Erin York ’11, ’13M,
Kleinberg’s graduate teaching assistant
and a candidate for her CMR master’s
in 2013. York studied political science
as an undergraduate and became
interested enough in the program that
she completed her certification. Her
coursework was then applied toward her
master’s.
“It’s been really helpful,” York says of the
CMR course work. “It can be applied to
a lot of different fields.”
This multidisciplinary element
has attracted an array of professors
from diverse academic departments:
communication studies and social work
and professionals with experiences at
the state department and with strategic
communications. York mentioned that a
former student held an internship at the
Department of Homeland Security.
As she moves toward graduation, York,
who hopes to get a job as an intelligence
analyst, is aware that the CMR degree
will better qualify her for available
jobs—at the CIA, “civilian military” or
the Department of State.
York says she has really enjoyed the
program. “It has been challenging.
It is a lot of work and reading in the
political science discipline. There is a
lot of writing and a lot of research. It is
rigorous, but not over complicated. It’s
not that it is hard to learn.”
Besides the different class structure,
prospective students might appreciate
that the GRE standardized test is not
required. Basing admissions on merit,
up to 15 students are admitted to the
program annually.
In a constantly changing world, the
CMR program emphasizes a goal of
transformation.
“Around the world, we are drawing
down militarily, but not in what we are
doing in those countries,” Kleinberg
says. “This program has the possibility
for a huge reach.”
Students interested in a myriad of
disciplines can find something in the
program that will enhance their personal
and professional transformations.
Flexibility in
Conflict “…it is rigorous, but
not over complicated.”
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M,
Jacqueline Daniele ’13 and Joy Ellis ’13
ThinkStock/iStockphoto
Kleinberg embraced the South African style of
teaching conflict and management resolution
and became passionate about bringing it to
North Carolina.
16 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 17
UNCW intern Shelby Abbott (right) works with New Hanover High
School student Dominique Hall on a writing assignment during an
English literature class.
What do sorting and recycling trash
and planting gardens have in common?
They are all part of an eTEAL initiative
to improve applied learning at UNCW.
Applied learning takes place all over campus:
directed independent study (DIS), internships,
course-embedded projects that include hands-on
experiences, community-based projects, honors
projects, study abroad and undergraduate research. “Applied
learning can work for any major,” explains Kim Cook, QEP
coordinator, professor and chair of the Department of
Sociology and Criminology.
For these reasons, applied learning seemed like the ideal topic
to focus on for the QEP.
“Applied learning is already such a big thing here at UNCW,”
said Laura Harrison, a graduate teaching assistant to the QEP.
“So the main goal of the QEP isn’t to make more opportunities
for applied learning, but to improve on the opportunities that
are already here.”
A greater emphasis on the intention behind the experience and
on the initiation of critical reflection throughout and following
the experience are the main ways that eTEAL differs from
previous applied learning experiences.
“It sounds really simple, but research shows that there are
huge improvements just by doing these little things,” Harrison
said, “The intention of knowing what you’re doing and being
involved in the learning process—being an active learner—is
the point of applied learning. The second part of that is
reflection—all of our classes, regardless of how often they do
reflection in class, have a reflection piece at the end. A lot of
this is just improving written and oral skills, but also critical
thinking…. It’s all about planting the seeds and connecting
the dots.”
Junior Whitley Fulp agrees that the faculty-student
relationships fostered through eTEAL are invaluable.
Following a suggestion from her professor, Fulp participated
in an eTEAL DIS shadowing registered dietitians and
volunteering with Expanded Food and Nutrition Programs.
Her professor then fostered her reflection process.
“Because my applied learning experience helped me make
connections and determine my career paths, I am quite an
advocate,” she said.
After much deliberation, the QEP task force targeted the
faculty as its initiation point.
“Through faculty development, we’ll achieve student
development. The better your professors are, the more they
have to give their students. So that’s been a big focus,”
Harrison said.
With faculty involvement in mind, eTEAL includes a three-part
approach. The first of these is the Applied Learning
Summer Institute that features experts in the field. Faculty
eTEAL is UNCW’s Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), a primary
requirement for the university’s 2013 decennial reaccreditation
through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
During the past three years, UNC Wilmington professors,
administrators, staff and students have worked diligently to
develop the QEP—a “long-term, university-wide project meant to
improve, enrich and enhance the student learning experience.”
The QEP, titled “eTEAL: experiencing Transformative Education
through Applied Learning,” revolves around a topic that runs
deep through UNCW’s curriculum.
will explore ways to enhance their teaching strategies to
enrich their practices.
The second part of the approach is developing Applied
Learning and Teaching Communities with goals to “discuss,
develop and share ideas related to pedagogy and critical
reflection.”
“The faculty meet every week and they have workshops for
all sorts of topics,” Harrison said.
UNCW/Katherine Freshwater
By Amelia Beamer ’13
18 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 19
The final part of the model—eTEAL-supported initiatives—is
funding that is available to support applied learning initiatives.
During the 2012–13 school year, eTEAL’s year of “preliminary
implementation,” 24 participants from across campus were
awarded these initiatives. Currently, there are 10 eTEAL
initiative classes taking place.
“The eTEAL-supported initiatives can provide funding for
supplies and materials needed for improving the teaching and
the learning opportunity for students, as well as providing faculty
with salary stipends if they are taking the time to revamp the
class in this way,” said Cook.
One such professor is Rebecca Warfield. She is spearheading
a new type of English 290 class, “White Vinegar and Chicken
Coops: The Narratives of Homesteading and Self-Sustainability.”
Warfield’s class features a variety of memoirs about
homesteaders—people who have left an urban environment
to live in the middle of nowhere—and urban farmers—city
dwellers who cultivate farms and gardens geared towards
sustainability. Warfield’s students are required to take part in
service learning—in this case, four hours a week work at the
campus recycling center.
“In order to pass the class, they have to do this. They have to go
to the back of campus and actually get into the trash and sort
The Real World of Model
United Nations
By Elizabeth King Humphrey ’03M with assistance from Meg O’Brien ’12 and Paige Tan
UNCW political science students
represented all these political entities
at the University of Pennsylvania
Model United Nations Conference in
November 2012. Model United Nations
(UN), an educational simulation, is part
public speaking exercise, part indoctrination
into parliamentary procedures and negotiation
techniques, and part learning to see the
international community through someone
else’s eyes. Many participants in Model UN
are interested in joining the real United
Nations organization when they graduate, but
for others, it is a worthy educational exercise.
The students debate global policies, try to find
consensus on issues and draft resolutions to
address world problems.
The UNCW students were enthusiastic about
their experiences: “it’s like a society,” “it’s
really cool to see people get together and be
so passionate and working so hard,” “there
was such goodwill,” and “powerful people are
scared of losing their power.”
The countries represented at the university-level
Model UN—based on a mixture of
contemporary, historical, and fictional—are
guided by a mock secretariat, also comprised
of students. The entire conference of
1,500 students was run by University of
Pennsylvania undergraduate students and
requires a year to prepare.
Paige Tan, associated professor and assistant
chair of the Department of Public and
International Affairs, prepares her students
each year for their trip to the Model UN
conference. Students learn about the United
Nations as well as concrete skills like public
speaking, negotiation, and resolution writing.
The trip to Philadelphia received support
from the College of Arts and Sciences’
Applied Learning Fund. The University
encourages applied learning experiences
during which students get out of the
classroom and experience their disciplines
as practitioners in the field might. In
Model United Nations, practice in the field
involves acting out high-level diplomacy.
In the months preceding the University
of Pennsylvania conference, the UNCW
students researched, practiced, discussed,
and immersed themselves (as much as they
could) into the world of the Model UN.
One of the students, Jennifer Otero, says
they “ran through countless mock UN
assembly procedures, researched assigned
topics and even created potential resolutions
for those issues.”
Almost everyone agreed that the ability to
confidently speak publicly strongly correlated
with success at the conference. Alexander
Miller says, “If you were bold enough to
speak…everyone would gravitate toward you.”
Another important skill to have in the Model
UN environment is adaptability. According
to Otero, the preparation exercises that
they did before the conference were helpful,
but “the ability to feel out different and
unique environments, and adapt to those
environments, was vital for success.”
Laura Gregory thinks one of the most
important lessons she gained from the Model
UN conference was to “be open to change
and compromise.” The other students agreed
because compromise and adaptability go hand
in hand. If one is willing to compromise,
the ability to adapt to unfamiliar or difficult
circumstances will come with ease.
(At the fall conference, incidentally, the
South did finally win the War Between
the States.)
Argentina!
The Philippines!
The Confederacy!
ThinkStock/iStockphoto
through it, and they have to go around campus and collect all of
the recyclables. That’s a small project right now. We’re working
on maybe making that a larger project for the university,”
Warfield said.
For their off-campus volunteer projects, the students were
given the choice to harvest herbs at Shelton Herb Farm, help
Tidal Creek Food Cooperative with research, work with local
kindergarteners to build gardens through the Food Corp or work
with Progressive Gardens to prepare, seed and harvest gardens.
In addition to the positive feedback that she has gotten from her
students, Warfield also emphasized how much she is growing as a
professor through the course.
“The cool thing about eTEAL is that it isn’t just student-focused.
It helps the instructors enhance their pedagogy,” she said, “I
really think that my pedagogy is changing because of this. Even
though I’ve always believed in applied learning, it wasn’t until I
actually did it, that I saw that—wow, this is really working.”
For the next five years, eTEAL will continue to assist professors
interested in applied learning. Funding will also be available for
non-credit-bearing learning activities—such as students who
wish to travel for academic conferences or for resident assistants
who want to create hands-on opportunities for students living
on campus.
As part of a five-week study abroad
program, Valerie Rider, a UNCW
lecturer in Spanish, hosted a group
of UNCW students. The students, including
Katherine Freshwater, lived in Viña del Mar,
Chile, and attended Pontificia Universidad
Católica de Valparaiso, a college in
Valparaiso, Chile. While there, the students
attended classes five days a week, and
experienced lectures by Rider and local
Chilean professors. The UNCW students
lived with host families who spoke varying
amounts of English. Freshwater’s hosts
spoke no English, which forced her
to embrace the culture and language.
Web extra: View a video Freshwater
produced as part of her applied learning
reflection. http://vimeo.com/53169810
(left to right; top row): Andrew Lloyd, Brock McKoy, Melanie Wolosyn,
Ciera Ames, Andi Black, Cierra Caulder, Diana Marren, Evan Jackson, Cody Scrufari
(left to right; bottom row): Melissa Lane, Tessa Mork, Tess Frierson, Luis Horne,
Katherine Freshwater, Chad Lane, Carynne Spaulding, James Hoot
20 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 21
22 Arts & Sciences
Left: Karis Moyers at the Lennon Wall in Prague, Czech Republic.
Below: Elena Fleggas standing in front of a phone booth in London,
England.
Following Page: Amber Lee in front of Alaska’s Mt. McKinley, the
highest peak in North America.
Charles F. Green III has established two programs for
English majors and everyone who shares his love of
literature at UNCW—the Buckner Lecture Series
and the Wentworth Fellowship Program.
The Buckner Lecture Series was endowed in October 1997
in honor of Green’s dear friend, Katherine Buckner—a
fellow lover of literature. They “share a love and interest in
literature and wish both to foster a greater understanding of
literature and to encourage the literary writers of the future.”
Over the past 15 years the UNCW English Department
Buckner Committee has brought some of the most
distinguished authors to campus. Most recently, best-selling
author Ann Hood (Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine, The
Knitting Circle) came to share her love of books and how
she uses writing as a coping mechanism.
Former Buckner Committee Chair Mark Boren said,
“We want to bring someone who wants to talk to students.
Someone who wants to share what they’ve discovered.”
Ann Hood did not disappoint. She captivated her audience
and spoke to them as if they were chatting over coffee.
Students who have studied and read her novels had the
opportunity to interact with her by asking questions and
receiving advice from someone who has made a career in
writing. “I couldn’t believe that someone who was so good
at evoking emotion on a page could have that same
intensity speaking. I was very touched. It was really
inspiring,” said Alex Nevill ’14.
“This,” said Boren, “is what the Buckner Lecture Series is
all about. It gives students access to these people, which
is a tremendous opportunity.”
Another opportunity, the Wentworth Fellowship Program,
was established by Green in June 2000 in honor of
Michael D. Wentworth, an award-winning professor
of English.
This program gives students the opportunity to travel in
America or abroad to sites connected with their favorite
piece of literature or literary movement. Green provides
$23,000 each year to help cover travel and lodging expenses
for the Wentworth Fellows.
So, what is sought for in a Wentworth Fellow? Committee
member Katie Peel said, “I look for students to have a passion
for a specific text or author. I look for that spark.” She
definitely saw “that spark” in Karis Moyers, Elena Fleggas and
Amber Lee, who are three recent Wentworth Fellows.
at UNC Wilmington Literature-Lovers by Meg O’Brien ’12
Green provides $23,000 each year to
help cover the costs of travel and
lodging for the Wentworth Fellows.
Karis Moyers, ’13
Moyers’ European adventure began during her freshman year when she
was “introduced to Milan Kundera’s novel, The Unbearable Lightness of
Being, by mere chance.” So what lead Moyers to Kundera’s novel? The
answer: music.
“During my freshman year at UNCW, I started listening to all kinds of
music. One of the bands I discovered, Bright Eyes, has a song titled
Tomas and Tereza. I thought the song was strange, but the lyrics were
beautiful. One day I saw someone quote The Unbearable Lightness of
Being and mentioned the two names from the song as characters in this
novel. I looked the book up and ordered it at the bookstore.”
Moyers loved the book and applied to become a Wentworth Fellow to
study how communism affected the Czechs in Prague.
It was “exciting…to see how the city showcases its
scars from the communist oppression,” says Moyers.
“I travelled all over the city to see each memorial for the victims of
communism, but the Museum of Communism gave me a deeper
understanding of why the Czechs are so scarred from the occupation
and revolution. Finding the museum was really hard. I had to ask
around, and I passed by the place three or four times. It was situated
behind a McDonalds and under a casino, which I found quite funny.
McDonalds is such a symbol for capitalism, and the same can be said
for a generic casino, so it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of
the past and present. It made me realize that this is how Prague is;
the modern aspects of the city seem merely to be layered on top of
the old parts.
“Seeing the inspiration behind the novels I’ve read reminded me exactly
why I wanted to be an English literature major. Literature is very relevant
to everyday life,” Moyers explained.
Elena Fleggas, ’12
During Fleggas’ senior year, she traveled to London, England, to
study Victorian childhood. Fleggas has “always had a strong interest
in childhood studies.” However, she did not discover her passion for
Victorian literature until the fall semester of her senior year.
Her fascination “with
children in Victorian
literature” brought her
to London, where she
was able to see and
experience what she
had only previously
read about. She
went to Lewis Caroll’s
Children’s Library and
the Victoria and Albert
Museum of Childhood,
both of which brought
her readings to life.
“London is an
absolutely beautiful
city that I had always
wanted to visit, and I
would not have been
able to without the
financial help from
this fellowship. I am very thankful I was given the
opportunity to continue my research in London.”
Arts & Sciences 23
UNCW Donor, Charles F. Green III
By Joy Ellis ’13
Charles F. Green III has started multiple funding
programs at UNCW, graciously donating
to enhance the learning of students and the
professional development among faculty members.
The explanation of his donations is “to share his passion
for learning with others.” Two of the programs he started
are the Wentworth Fellowship and the Bucker Lecture
Series, both of which are familiar to those on the
UNCW campus.
Wentworth Fellowship:
• Established in 2001
• Enables students to go on journeys associated with a specific
literary text, author or movement so they can explore the
geographic region and legendary landmarks/sites related to
the work
• After the trip is completed, students must write an essay that
reviews the trip and describes how it helped them learn about
a specific text, author or movement
• Students must also create a poster after the trip, illustrating their
activities and what they learned
• All of the Wentworth Fellow posters are put on display during a
public presentation in Randall Library
Buckner Lecture Series:
• Established to bring notable writers, speakers and artists to UNCW
• In honor of Green’s friend, Katherine K. Buckner
• Some of the previous speakers include Joyce Carol Oates,
Ken Burns, Catherine Lutz and Ann Hood
• Free and open to the public
Amber Lee, ’10
Douglas Fine’s Not Really an Alaskan Mountain Man inspired Amber
Lee. So much so that during the spring break of Lee’s senior year
she—and her mother—traveled to Alaska. Lee’s fascination with
Alaska started with another book she read during her junior year, Jon
Krakauer’s Into the Wild. Alaska “was so unlike North Carolina and any
land I had explored, and I wanted to know all about it,” said Lee.
The below-zero cold of Alaska did not impress Amber’s mother, but for
Lee it “was more than [she] dreamed” it could be. “I had a hard time
convincing myself to come back to North Carolina for those two months
to finish my degree,” she said.
She did not have to miss it for too long. Two weeks after graduation,
Lee moved to Anchorage. Her mother’s reaction? “Not thrilled,” Lee
said. But her mother has visited and found that Alaskan summers can
be sunny and warm.
Lee’s Wentworth trip allowed her “to travel Alaska and visit the places
that Doug Fine wrote about—the places that connected him to the
community and made him want to stay. I was able to experience the
same hospitality and feel connected to a place in a way I never had
before. The trip
solidified the idea
that I would live
in Alaska after
graduation and
become part of the
community, too.”
Lee said, “The trip
changed my life…
and without the
kindness of Charles
Green, my life would
probably be very
different now. If I
had not been able
to travel to Alaska
due to the Wentworth
Fellowship, I most
likely would not have moved here after graduation. I would like to thank
him for all the opportunities he has granted UNCW students over
the years.”
The chance to travel across the world to study literature is a dream
for all literature and writing students. Due to Green’s generosity,
these—and other—students have benefited from the opportunities
his fellowships he provides.
faculty acolades
UNCW/JAMIE MONCRIEF
24 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 25
Nina de Gramont, creative writing lecturer, sold two young
adult novels to Simon & Schuster: Meet Me at the River (2014)
and The Boy I Love (2013).
Karen Bender, creative writing lecturer, sold her short
story collection, Refund, to Counterpoint Press. An excerpt
from Bender’s new novel, A Town of Empty Rooms, appeared
in the Printers Row Journal section of the Chicago Tribune in
December 2012.
Rebecca Lee, associate professor of creative writing,
anticipates her book, Bobcat and Other Stories (Hamish
Hamilton Canada, 2012), to be published in the U.S. this year.
Malena Mörling, associate professor of creative writing,
published a book of poetry translations, On Foot I Wandered
Through the Solar Systems (Marick Press, 2012).
Michael White, professor of creative writing, has two
companion books—Vermeer in Hell, winner of the 2012 Lexi
Rudnitsky Editor’s Prize, and Travels in Vermeer—published by
Persea Books.
“Unflinching Leader,” Philip Gerard’s portrait of Gov.
Zebulon Baird Vance was part of the July 2011 issue of
Our State magazine that won a national Folio Award for
best single issue.
The short story “The Right Imaginary Person” by
Robert Seigel, associate professor of creative writing,
will appear in Tin House 54.
Music department chair Frank Bongiorno’s DVD Master
Class, “Basic Reed Maintenance for the Saxophonist,” was
published in Saxophone Journal (July/August 2012).
The Unknown Horowitz: The Man and His Music, by Sherill
Martin, professor of music history, with Richard Boursey of
Yale University, will be published by the Indiana University
Press. Steven Errante, professor of music; Barry Salwen,
associate professor of music; and Joe Kishton,
professor of psychology, contributed essays to the book.
Kimberly Cook, sociology and criminology department
chair, and Saundra Westervelt of UNC Greensboro, published
Life After Death Row: Exonerees’ Search for Community and Identity
(Rutgers University Press). They presented their findings to
the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission and were
invited to discuss it on a WUNC radio program.
Vibeke Olson, associate professor of art history, has a
new publication titled “Woman Why Weepest Thou? Mary
Magdalene, The Virgin Mary and the Transformative Power
of Holy Tears in Late Medieval Devotional Painting.”
David La Vere, associate professor of history, had his
seventh book published: The Tuscarora War: Settlers and the
Fight for the Carolina Colonies.
Michael Seidman, professor of history, announced the
publication of the Spanish translation of his 2011 novel,
The Victorious Counterrevolution: The Nationalist Effort in the
Spanish Civil War.
Glen A. Harris, associate professor of history, published his
first book, Ocean Hill-Brownsville Conflict: Intellectual Struggles
Between Blacks and Jews at Mid Century (Lexington Books).
The Ryoanji Duo—Frank Bongiorno, music department
chair, and Robert Nathanson, professor of music—were
selected to perform the premiere of David Kechley’s Points of
Departure at the 16th World Saxophone Congress in Scotland
in July 2012. The duo also recorded Kechley’s Sea of Stones with
the Filharmonia Sudecka in Walbrzych, Poland, in May 2012.
Daniel Johnson, associate professor of music, gave
collaborative presentations at the 30th World Conference
of the International Society for Music Education in
Thessaloniki, Greece.
Diane Levy, professor of sociology, returned from
her Fulbright exchange in the Ukraine and delivered a
presentation titled “A Fulbright Semester in Ukraine:
Borscht and Bureaucracy.”
Julie-Ann Scott, assistant professor of communication
studies, received the 2012 Janet Mason Ellerby Women’s and
Gender Studies Scholarly Award.
Barbara Waxman, professor of English, received the
2013 Janet Mason Ellerby Women’s and Gender Studies
Scholarly Award.
Lisa Pollard, associate professor of history, won the
Distinguished Engaged Scholarship/Public Service Award.
Andi Steele, assistant professor of studio art, exhibited
“Mountains” at Cape Fear Community College’s Hanover
Gallery. Her large-scale steel sculpture “Vaulted” was part of
a group exhibition for ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Ann Conner, studio art chair and professor of studio art,
exhibited 14 new woodcuts including large format prints in
the Solo Exhibition “New Woodcut Prints by Ann Conner,”
at Mahler Fine Art in Raleigh. “Bel-Air” was printed at The
Grenfell Press in New York City and recently published.
Shannon Silva, assistant professor of film studies, and
Donna King, associate professor of sociology, co-produced a
documentary on consumer culture aimed at young girls titled
It’s a Girl Thing: Tween Queens and the Commodification of Girlhood.
In January, it was screened in UNCW’s Lumina Theatre
followed by a panel discussion highlighting the interesting
progression of the “tween queen” market.
In addition to its 80,000-square-feet of classrooms,
specialized laboratories and office spaces, the 2012
opening of the Teaching Lab Building to UNCW’s
campus has had another primary benefit—it opened doors to
hiring new faculty members, including Rachel Kohman.
Kohman, a neuroscientist conducting research as part of a
three-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, joined
UNCW’s psychology department this school year. It’s a move
that could not have happened prior to the construction of the
new building.
“I do teach a brain and behavior class here, but most of my
time is geared toward research,” she said, “I definitely wouldn’t
have been able to come here and do my work if this building
didn’t exist. The space was a very big part of my decision, and
essentially one of the primary factors for me coming here. I
don’t think that the other building could have housed and run
a lot of equipment that I use.”
Kohman’s background, as described in her own words for the
psychology department’s website, “is in the interdisciplinary
field of psychoneuroimmunology, studying the intersection of
neuroscience and immunology.”
The long-term goal of her research “is to characterize the
functional consequences of increased inflammation within
the brain, identify the neural mechanisms of these changes
and identify interventions to attenuate the aversive effects of
neuroinflammation.”
In laymen’s terms, she explained that when we get sick—and
especially in cases of the chronically ill—our immune systems
have a “chronic immune response going on,” which triggers
inflammation in the brain. This reaction may disrupt learning
and memory processes.
“There are a lot of changes in the immune system that
happen with normal aging, and so you tend to get this
chronic, low-grade inflammation of the brain, just from
normal aging. So then, when you add on top of that, an
immune challenge—say, an older person gets ill—they tend
to be more susceptible to being sick, and once they do get
sick, they tend to not recover as quickly,” Kohman said.
The main way that Kohman studies these trends is through
her ongoing research with mice.
“We know that from our work, and a lot of other labs, that
if you challenge an older [mouse], they show more cognitive
deficits that last a lot longer. And we’re trying to figure out,
along with many other labs that are working on this problem,
how we can slow this down, if there is a way to reverse that,”
she said.
Kohman looks at exercise, to see if that may reduce the brain
inflammation, as well as making the brain learn better.
“And we’re seeing that it does,” Kohman said about the
exercise. “Basically, you see improvements of cognitive
function from exercise, and then it’s about applying that
to humans.”
The addition of the new building allowed Kohman to
customize her lab and research experiences in ways that
simply wouldn’t have been possible in the past. Her lab
was built with bio safety cabinets and fume hoods—safety
necessities in her field of work—and it is spacious enough
to store the equipment that she brought with her.
“The biggest thing I’ve brought is a real-time thermo cycler,”
she said. “Basically, it’s used to look at gene expression—so we
can measure changes in messenger RNA levels of any
type of protein or messenger RNA that exists in the body
or the brain.”
She also has other equipment, such as centrifuges and
cyrostats, which may have taxed electrical systems in the
Social and Behavioral Sciences Building.
“They’ve had to do a little bit of work with the electrical
system for my equipment because I have a minus-eighty degree
freezer,” Kohman explained. The freezer uses a lot of energy,
but a generator helps ensure that power will stay constant. “So
that’s a nice feature of the building, too.”
The Teaching Lab was designed with collaboration and
technological support in mind. “It’s set up in a way that all of
the labs are on one floor, and then there’s a few common rooms
up there, but everyone exits through the same hallways, so
we can interact a little more than we would if we were spread
apart in different areas of the building,” she said.
Kohman also expressed that the genuine good nature of the
UNCW community also played a major role in her decision
to become a Seahawk.
“It really seemed, when I interviewed here, that people were
very genuine, and that they got along, and they were happy
to come to work,” she said, “and you want to be around
that—I’m going to be here for a long time, and I’m going to
be around these people every day, so I want to work with a
group of people that like each other, and who are collegial,
and essentially want to see you succeed. And I really got that
feeling—that this was a family, in that sense.”
teaching LAB profiles
Rachel Kohman:
Customizing the Lab
By Amelia Beamer ’13
…the interdisciplinary field
of psychoneuroimmunology
26 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 27
Before joining the environmental studies department at
UNCW, Gregory Meyer worked as an environmental
specialist and geographic information systems (GIS)
programmer for the N.C. Division of Coastal Management.
He developed intricate maps depicting the different types of
wetlands that make up North Carolina’s 20 coastal counties,
and then worked with a team to use this data to propose
concrete suggestions to officials of how to protect these
environments.
With more than 20 years of experience with the technology
and a passion for coastal environments, Meyer seemed an ideal
candidate to join the Department of Environmental Studies
faculty, and Wilmington seemed the ideal location for his
research. The Teaching Laboratory Building, with its state-of-
the-art GIS lab that virtually tripled the space previously
available, ultimately sealed the deal on Meyer’s decision.
“I did my Ph.D. in coastal resources, so research on the
coast—you can’t beat Wilmington,” Meyer explained. “I was
really excited about going to this brand-new place and having
brand-new hardware and software. It helps that we have a new
lab and have budding interest from many students. We now
have the tools.”
To the untrained eye, watching Meyer work on an aerial
map of North Carolina with the lab’s special GIS software
programs looks similar to a complicated, high-level computer
game. He zooms in and out, applying different “layers”—one
adds all of the bodies of water in North Carolina, one labels
the boundaries of each county, and another applies a rainbow
of colors, each representing a different type of wetland
environment. With the click of his mouse, Meyer can choose
from thousands of such layers and can also create his own,
resulting in custom maps that can display virtually any aspect
of the environment that he wishes to analyze.
“It looks kind of difficult to understand, but when you start
learning it and doing it, it’s easy,” he said, “GIS is kind of time
consuming, but overall, when you see what you can get out of
it, it’s so worth it.”
Most of Meyer’s time is spent teaching GIS classes, and
his curriculum is heavily geared towards applied learning.
Mostly, students create and analyze trends and patterns on
their own maps and learn to discern what those trends and
patterns actually mean with regards to ongoing and future
environmental changes.
“Most of the students are from North Carolina, and they are
looking for jobs in the local agencies or in the government,
so I want to teach them how to analyze the wetlands and land
use, and about local fisheries—about population and cities—all
things they will use when they get into the field,” Meyer said.
With the amount of land use dedicated to cities and
agriculture expanding rapidly, much of Meyer’s own current
research deals with how this is affecting our environmental
landscapes—and what governments and city planners should
(and shouldn’t) be doing to ensure sustainability.
“I’m studying landscape trends, in a way, in the coastal area,
and also I’m trying to branch into the human population—our
cities are growing. How is it impacting our landscapes?”
One example that Meyer gave to illustrate this inquiry is the
growth of Charleston, S.C. from 1970 to 1995. During those
years, “the population there doubled, but the amount
of physical space covered by the city grew three times.”
Meyer is working to determine why the city’s physical space
changed that way.
“Using aerial photography, it’s very easy to see where the city
was in 2000 and where it was in 2010,” Meyer said, “Using
biology and environmental filters, you can see what possible
impact it’s going to have on the environment so that you can
propose some concrete actions. We can say, ‘maybe you should
go here and not there, because there it would impact the
stream, or some sensitive habitat.’”
Originally from Rwanda, Meyer earned his master’s degree
from NC State University and his Ph.D. from East Carolina
University.
“North Carolina is a good place to be an environmentalist—to
do this kind of work,” he said. “We have many progressive
policies, but we also have many problems—or many potential
problems. The good thing is, the major issues are all regulated
by federal agencies. We all follow the same rules. The issue is,
how we apply those locally.”
In addition to the state-of-the-art Teaching Laboratory
facilities and the ideal coastal location, Meyer said that he was
also drawn to UNCW by the research and camaraderie of his
now-colleagues in the environmental studies department.
“There are so many others who are doing things that interest
me,” he said. “I can learn from them. If somebody has been
doing something longer than you have, more than likely, you
are going to learn from them.”
teaching LAB profiles
Gregory Meyer:
Mapping from the Lab
By Amelia Beamer ’13
…his curriculum is heavily
geared towards applied learning
28 Arts & Sciences Arts & Sciences 29
A Department of Theatre production (2012~13 season)
A Midsumer
Night’s Dream
DEPARTMENT of Theatre
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
P A I D
Wilmington, NC
Permit No. 444
College of Arts & Sciences
601 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403-5912
UNIVERSITY of NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
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